Arthur's Fifth Grade Adventures IX: Sheigo's Turn
by Sheigo
Summary: Also known as Double Feature, Sue Ellen and Fern are on the run, while plans for a kidnapping take place. More detailed description inside
1. Goodbye

Arthur's Fifth Grade Adventures IX: Sheigo's Turn

Arthur is © Marc Brown.

Strickland's note: Sheigo is doing this story, I did the first few chapters, and he will release an author's note at around chapter four or five. I would write it and foresee the creative direction, but Sheigo has a much better vision for this. I would do this story but I am busy with a job and my sister gets married on 9/16.

Sheigo's note: Originally titled Revenge of the mighty, fan fictions new story setup thing forces me to make the title shorter, I am also new to the concept of using original characters. Please review kindly as I am most likely going to sit in a corner and ask why I am writing this. And probably whimper a little bit.

Special thanks to Dheine for reviewing everything I released, and to Dead Composer for letting me use April who will appear later. And to everyone else who has reviewed my stories.

This story is about Fern and Sue Ellen on the run from the threat of the Heresy, in particular Cyrax the mighty a evil aardvark man who wears yellow and black armor.

The second portion of the story is about a certain mafia who wants to kidnap someone along side with a certain ex-county commisioner and they hold a ransom of 60 cars and $1 Million dollars.

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On Dinosaurus Moss was in an infirmary for transport to Terra, he bolted up from his eternal sleep. Sue Ellen and Fern were led to believe that this master of 'sorcery' as many would say it is was dead; many witnesses had seen him fall to the ground bleeding from his nose, mouth and ears.

His body was covered with an itchy blanket; he felt a rash form on his arms and legs... Whatever the blend of fabric was it wasn't good.

But many members of the Order were secretive of their lineage, their mind games, and most of all the ability to play dead. This had tricked even the mercenaries, the witnesses and anyone in the area as local hunters had scared off the off-planeters with loaded slingshots with marbles and sharpened sticks with poisoned needles at the end.

Moss woke "WHOA!" An aardvark man who wore a white lab coat yelled as he fell onto the linoleum flooring, he was shocked thinking he was dead, but rose from the dead, "You are supposed to be dead, I seen the mercenary crack you with a bat across the face, I seen the blood, the trauma…."

"An old trick of the Order," Moss replied tiredly as he smiled faintly, despite what injuries he had sustained, "Now where are Sue Ellen and Fern?" Moss replied as he scratched his arms, "Give me the Aloe lotion, your blankets here are itchy!"

"Who?" the doctor asked.

"My apprentices."

"No record of them, but I did see a distraught cat girl and a injured poodle girl take a ship, the log that the port authority accessed from the onboard computer stated that they are returning to Earth, Despite problems with them with strong inability to fly… I fear they won't get far as the space pirates will kidnap them."

Moss was cursing under his breath, he didn't want them to leave it was way too dangerous. He vowed to stop the training, because both girls _were_ a liability, he wasn't so much worried about himself, he was about 30 earth years old, if not older, he sighed, he needed transport back to Earth, to set things straight, and to halt the training, the two girls parents would never forgive him if something happened to both of them.

---

With Sue Ellen and Fern supposedly had no one to follow in the teachings of the order because they thought Moss was dead; they also knew going home wouldn't be safe. Sue Ellen wasn't too happy with what happened in the altercation before, "Max, I am not speaking to you."

The tiger boy had lowered his head in shame, "I am sorry…"

"Do you have no recollection of the pain I endured when you cut off my hand? And the hours of reconstructive surgery?"

"You almost turned to the arts of Heresy, you gave into your anger," Fern commented, "Now since Moss is dead, _we_ are working together, and when this ordeal is over _we_ are both quitting _we_ are turning in the weapons of the order, the robes, everything, I want to just lead a normal life instead of going on a crusade..."

Normality wasn't the half of it, with going after maniacal members of the heresy, corrupt county officials, members of the Benneditto's as well as getting Earth nearly destroyed by separatists… things were far from normal, Sue Ellen just wanted to be back home, she didn't need this, she was beside herself.

They went home for a few hours, for Sue Ellen to lose her hand what would be more painful emotionally was the fact that she would have to leave home and her friends except for Fern behind. The Clarkson's, Fern and Sue Ellen walked into the room.

"Mom, I can't stay here much longer…" Sue Ellen said sadly.

"While you were gone, I want to give you these pills, they are anti-depressants, and I know you are depressed."

It was true, she was, due to her mom being her teacher, and Sue Ellen took the amber colored pill bottle from her mother's hand, "Mom, aren't you listening?"

Mrs. Armstrong sunk back to reality, "I know… _they_ were here looking for you and Fern…"

"Who?" Reno asked.

"Two masked men, around your height, said that someone named Cyrax wants to train them…" Mrs. Armstrong replied.

"Any idea where they went?"

"No."

Sue Ellen took one of the pills.

"I am going to miss you…" Mrs. Armstrong said sadly, "Good luck, keep out of trouble…"

Sue Ellen packed her stuff, while Fern ran over to her place to do the same thing. Sue Ellen and Fern gave a heartfelt goodbye and they left Earth and went to Dinosaurus far away from the Neanderthalians.

"Welcome to Cretaceous," an aardvark woman of average height wearing a prehistoric outfit greeted.

"We are here to drop these apprentices off," Mr. Clarkson replied.

"They have diplomatic immunity here; there is a place for members of the order to be…"

Fern sighed, "But our master recently died, we are here to stay safe from any heresy lords."

The greeter coughed, "There is a rise of heresy lords, they are working with the mercenary guild to hunt any member of the order down and kill them. They have special plans for you two; they want to train you both," She led Fern and Sue Ellen to a large hut made of logs, and sticks, and she opened the door.

Five aardvark women wearing white outfits, they all looked like clones as they all had blonde hair but were not clones as they had more will than the stereotypical clone.

"We are the caretakers here; we look after young members of the order," The first aardvark woman replied.

"We are just young apprentices who don't have a master," Fern replied nervously, she wanted to leave but had to stay, these handmaidens probably wouldn't let them leave right away or sneak off.

Sue Ellen and Fern went into the next room to blend with the local populace, they were wearing their prehistoric outfits, all Sue Ellen said was, "I am hungry…"

"We were taught the basic survival skills, we got to go out there and hunt…" Fern replied.

"Or go to the local store and buy some food, which I already done," The second aardvark woman stated.

Sue Ellen went into the living room and lay on the couch face down, she was crying.

Fern walked in, "I know you miss your mom and your dad, but we will go back sooner or later."

"Soon isn't soon enough," Sue Ellen grumbled, it was true; she was impatient with what had been happening she devised a plan, "Whenever we get back to Earth, me, you and everyone else is going to take care of these guys."

Fern was shocked, "Sue Ellen no! You don't know what you are getting yourself into."

Sue Ellen was being cocky, "If these guys are looking for a fight, we are going to give them one."

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Back on Earth Mrs. Armstrong taught the class it was a very warm early January day the Sphere of Fear which was destroyed affected some weather patterns. Due to this awful experience, many people got sick after, and some still are, Mrs. Baxter and the separatists were tried for their crimes of passion to destroy a planet by using natural disasters to make people think that Mother Nature turned against them.

Mrs. Armstrong was wearing the drab looking outfit that she wore twice to a funeral and to a parent and teacher meeting, she had to make the announcement, "Class, today Sue Ellen and Fern will be going away for a while, they didn't say where they were going, but I as well as most of you will miss them deeply."

The Brain sighed sadly, "When will they return?"

"No one knows."

"Will they come back?" Max asked with some hope in his eyes despite being partially responsible for what happened.

"I don't know," Mrs. Armstrong replied with a sad smile on her face.

"Is there anyone to blame for this?" Max asked.

"No, they did it by choice," Mrs. Armstrong said sadly. She just wanted them to come home, for her being a teacher was stressful enough.

Class dragged on until recess, Max stayed, "Mrs. Armstrong, are you ok?"

"I am fine; I love my daughter, it is so sad to see her go…"

Max sighed sadly as she had given her his apple, "She will contact you daily."

Mrs. Armstrong took a bite out of her apple, "I know, but I wonder how I will deal with it when she goes off to college."

"I know how you feel."

"Like Sue Ellen and Fern left everything behind, will they remember to come back to Earth? Will they get an education?"

"Yea, they should come back sometime, as for their education, they are being taught by someone."

"But the fact that they are both on a strange planet doesn't sit well with me, I can't visit them, those strange men were after them; were hoping to kidnap them, Buck got in their faces and he threatened to shoot them both with a shotgun. They pretty much ran off as Buck was chasing them but both of them weren't looking and Mr. Crosswire hit them both with a car and killed them."

Alanis walked carrying her baby daughter in her arms, she was whimpering, "Harry is dead…"

"I know…"

"What am I going to do now? I am a single mother; I don't have a job or anything… Those two masked men are probably going to have their way with me…"

"I can see if Mr. Crosswire will hire you, he is looking for a secretary…" Max admitted out of the blue, "My dad is working there as the new car salesman."

Alanis sighed as she sat down, "Moss trained Sue Ellen and Fern, he died on Dinosaurus, Sue Ellen and Fern left Earth to live in solitude."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "Mr. Crosswire is looking for someone, to hire despite he was almost charged for two counts of vehicular homicide, but witnesses said that they ran out in front; What disturbs me is Sue Ellen and Fern who are both gone; I want to make sure Sue Ellen takes those pills."

Alanis had her question, "Why is she taking pills for?"

"I listened to the psychologist; she needs to be here so I can keep a close eye on her…"

"Good luck, you will need it…" Alanis stated rudely, "Like Max they will probably have problems adjusting whenever they get home..."

The tiger boy gave her a dirty look, "For your information my parents aren't going back to Tigris!"

TBC


	2. Poppycock

Authors note: I almost forgot let's give Fern a break from investigating pairs of underwear and give Fern a new adventure.

To Dead Composer April won't appear until much later in this story.

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Sue Ellen and Fern were eating some fire roasted meat on a stick. It was very bland tasting, that both girls could hardly eat it. They managed to stomach it and threw the sticks in, "I don't like this…"

"I don't want to be on the move all the time, this is dangerous," Fern said nervously as she took a bite out of the meat.

"I know…" Sue Ellen replied sadly then made an average statement defending her actions, "We made a commitment; we can't face these guys alone."

One of the handmaidens entered the room, "Girls, you have a guest."

An aardvark man of average height with brown hair, whom was wearing a prehistoric outfit, entered the room.

"What do you want?" Fern asked as she was slightly annoyed.

There was no going pass Fern when she was in this mood, Fern knew very well what she got into, she needed to get out of this before someone she knows or cares about dies.

"I am from the village you both saved; you did a good job but the ending could have been more peaceful…"

Sue Ellen left the room she heard enough of this story; she knew she made some bad choices, and it would be very difficult to fix them if these handmaidens were to be here and they didn't have much of a choice of where to go next.

The leader of the village commented, "What is wrong with her?"

"Moss was mentioning something about keeping an eye on her because she is very close to falling to become a member of the heresy." Fern sighed.

"I will leave you both…" and he left.

"I believe we are done dinner, I am going to talk to Sue Ellen." Fern said calmly.

The handmaiden smiled, "Ok," and she got rid of the metal utensils and put out the fire.

Fern saw Sue Ellen lying on the cot looking up at the ceiling, "So this is our lives…"

Fern interrupted her, "I know you are sad, I can sense it."

Sue Ellen covered her face with her hands, "I know… please help me before I lose it again."

Fern of course listened to the handmaidens plans, "Well, if those bad guys come, we are leaving the planet in a moments notice."

"I am glad you are making the decisions, I can't…"

One of the handmaidens walked in interrupting both girls, "It is essential that you both get an education."

Sue Ellen smiled nervously it wasn't what she expected, it was some of the best news she heard all day, but it was overshadowed that her mom took a teaching job at Lakewood, "You are a teacher?"

"Yes, we are going to do some fifth grade math right now."

"Ok," both girls replied with a sense of satisfaction.

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After school, Mrs. Armstrong, Max and Alanis went to Crosswire motors.

"I don't know if he will hire me…" Alanis stated sadly she of course was in fear of rejection.

"My dad got hired by him," Max replied quietly despite he was upset with what she said earlier.

"…true," she turned to him, "So why can't your family go back?"

"Tigris was loyal to Tyrannous, due to political strife in some areas of the planet, we would probably be killed, my mom and dad's immediate family is coming soon, and they want to escape."

"I see… In any case Earth is not a member of any faction, so rest assured that they don't even know where you are."

Mrs. Armstrong explained the situation to Ed Crosswire, and the poor aardvark woman got hired on the spot, despite some problems that Mrs. Armstrong had with Mr. Crosswire.

"Show up here tomorrow," Mr. Crosswire ordered, and looked in the aardvark woman's eyes, "And wear something sexy."

Mrs. Armstrong glared at Mr. Crosswire, "That is sexual harassment you know."

Mr. Crosswire grumbled, "Fine, wear something casual."

Mr. Clarkson sat at his desk as he saw his son, "Max, you are to baby-sit Arthur's sister tonight, her parents are going to a cocktail party and Arthur is going to Muffy's"

Max of course wasn't impressed with the plan, "Dad, she is mean, greedy, and whines too much."

Mr. Clarkson wasn't too happy, "Max, I will make it up to you; I got cars to sell."

Max trudged off sadly as this wasn't what he wanted to do, Mrs. Armstrong sighed as she looked at him then turned to Reno, "Max doesn't seem to like baby sitting."

"Mrs. Armstrong, Max is a good kid, but truthfully, Mr. and Mrs. Read wanted Max to look after D.W. while the baby sister is at Thora's."

"So is Sue Ellen, I just want her and Fern to come home," Mrs. Armstrong commented sadly, "I want this nonsense to stop."

"I am worried about them too," Alanis replied, "They are wandering around unescorted."

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Max had soon arrived at the Read House; Muffy was there, waiting for Arthur; Mr. and Mrs. Read were wearing their Sunday's best.

They gave Max directions the emergency contacts as they left, Arthur and Muffy left soon after.

"Real good parents…" Max grumbled as he didn't want to be here, he'd rather be well doing stuff with friends..

D.W. was watching TV, "I wish I was on the Mary Moo Cow show, and then I can leave my crummy life behind and be rich."

"That ain't going to happen," Max chimed in as he laughed at D.W.s visions of grandeur.

"Yea it is!" D.W. yelled, "Once I get to the studios where the show is aired you'll see."

Max chuckled it was too funny but truthfully he wanted to lock her outside, "They are not going to put you on the show."

D.W. left as the show ended, she had found a black marker… a water soluble marker but she didn't know that, she had found a wall and she started drawing a word on it… a dirty word in her point of view, she ran into the den where Max was watching TV, "Max I wrote a swear word on the wall!"

Max was shocked as she saw the word in big black letters, "Poppycock?"

"Aren't you going to punish me?"

"That's water soluble!" Max argued, "I will punish you by making you wash the wall." He got a wash bucket full of water and a sponge.

D.W. soaked the sponge and washed the word off the wall, "I hate it here, my parents are always punishing me and Arthur is always mean to me!"

"He is looking out for you," Max replied as he chuckled at the word on the wall.

It was true Arthur was always looking out for D.W. despite the implications about how people treated her 'badly'.

"Well I propose myself to go on Mary Moo Cow…" D.W. stated truthfully, then lost confidence immediately with an almost tearful voice, "…Can you take me to the studio?"

"Forget it," Max replied rudely knowing this plan was going to be very stupid, "You are to stay here and keep out of trouble even if I have to tie you to a wooden chair because I can tie really good knots."

"Fine, then I am going to tell my parents that you hit me," D.W. warned, "Then you won't baby-sit in this town ever again!"

Max chuckled, "If that is the way you want it, then perhaps I will go into the kitchen to get me the slice of cake in the fridge," Max went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, he found a slice of cake left, it was enough for him and a note stating that it was for Max.

He put it on a plate and he started to eat it.

"That was _my_ cake!" D.W. stammered angrily.

Max chuckled, "I am a guest in your house; compliments to your father, he makes an awesome chocolate cake."

"Well guests are like house flies, you can only stand them for a few minutes," D.W. chided the tiger boy.

"Well, I am babysitting you and you can't do much about it," Max said as he finished up the cake.

D.W. sighed she wanted to do something mean to him, so mean he would hopefully never come back she had decided to kick him where the sun don't shine and he fell down in pain almost crying.

Mr. and Mrs. Read had come home; Mrs. Read had a bit too much too to drink and almost had sexual relations with Carlos. Mr. and Mrs. Read had found Max almost crying on the floor; Mr. Read looked at D.W. "D.W. what happened."

"He fell," D.W. lied.

Max struggled to get up and said in a winded voice, "She kicked me…"

"D.W.!" Mr. Read exclaimed, "Go to your room."

D.W. left while Mr. Read led Max into the kitchen, he turned to him, "Need some ice?"

"Sure…"

Mr. Read gave Max an ice pack, "So what happened?"

"D.W. was wanting to be on the Mary Moo Cow show, so I told her it probably wouldn't happen, so after I grabbed a slice of cake, she complained it was her cake and she kicked me, on top of that she wrote a swear word on the wall."

Mrs. Read was shocked and she nearly fainted, probably due to how much she had drunk.

"Don't worry I made her wash it off."

Mr. Read went to investigate, all he said was "Poppycock?"

Max joined him, "Still there?" he had seen a dark outline of the word on the wall, she washed it but it proved to be a stubborn stain.

Mr. Read turned to Max, he knelt down face to face, "About the cake; D.W. probably wasn't informed that the slice of cake was for you for babysitting her…"

"I want to get her back…"

Arthur and Muffy who came back early walked in with an idea they both heard the conversation Max had with Mr. Read, Arthur looked at the wall, and noticed the ice pack "She kicked you down there I take, so how about we guilt trip by telling her you had to go to the hospital and you had to get a gender change because of where she kicked you."

Max smiled deviously at the plan.

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The next day at Crosswire Motors a monkey man in his mid twenties was talking to Ed, "Jimmy, you are going to work with Reno over here, since Reno has some sales experience you both are going to talk to Mr. Freeman about us being the supplier of police cars."

The young looking monkey man who was wearing a fine suit smiled at Reno who was a bit apprehensive of working with someone who didn't seem to have much experience in the car business, they both went to the police station, "Ok we are not going to take no for an answer."

They walked into the police station proper with briefcases in hand and a smile on their faces, they had sat down at the desk of the police chief and he had looked at them both, "How may I help you both?"

Reno started to talk but was interested by Jimmy, "I am Jimmy Crosswire, related to Ed Crosswire and I hear you want some new police cars."

"One or two…" Freeman replied but was interrupted by Jimmy.

"Well sir you're in luck, with our cars you will get to the crime scene quicker."

Mr. Freeman wasn't interested with more than two; he knew it was a lame sales pitch, he was impatient "Get on with it."

"Ok, what happens if there is a problem with most police cars and others are on patrol and you need to get to the crime scene as it happens when some psychopath comes into a room with a chainsaw and he uses it on his victims?" Jimmy asked, and then quickly answered before Freeman said anything, "Nothing because you aren't there to detain him, and what happens when the paramedics come?" he asked, "They walk in and one is like 'Oh My God!' then he sees the new paramedic in the corner throwing up because he sees the mutilated bodies."

"You have to excuse my co-worker, apparently he ate paint chips when he was a child," Reno replied as he was embarrassed by his co-workers irrational behavior, "Jimmy here is very special."

"Ok and what happens when you get your new police cars through us?" the monkey man asked as he, "You get to the psychopath before he kills that family with a chainsaw, and you and your fellow officers show how things _should_ be done, when you beat his ass to the fullest extent of the law because there are no small crimes…they are all justified."

Mr. Freeman was annoyed with them both, "Get out!" and he turned to Jimmy, "Oh and Jimmy have a very 'special' day."

They both walked out of the police station.

"What the hell was that?" Reno asked in shock, this wasn't what he expected; it was far from what the tiger man had expected at all, "I told you just to push the cars Mr. Crosswire sells not make it into some gangster story."

"Well it is true, he will thank us later when your family won't get massacred by some crazy chainsaw wielding maniac."

"I happen to be able to fight anyone off, but one question remains, did you eat paint chips when you were a child? Or put in a special ed class?"

They parted their ways Reno was sick of this guy and his crazy allusions, but Jimmy went into his brown sedan and drove down Main Street.

A decrepit looking aardvark man wearing black armor and carrying a chainsaw in hand was mumbling to himself; "I will kill that cat girl and that poodle girls families, then Cyrax will give me a cut. If he doesn't I will kill him too..."

Jimmy saw the mercenary carrying a chainsaw as he walked across the street, he put the petal to the metal and hit him, causing the merc to crash into the windshield and Jimmy crashing into another car, the mercenary was hurt as was Jimmy, bystanders ran to both their aid as Jimmy was bleeding from cuts to the face when the glass shattered. The mercenary looked at his leg; it was broken.

He stumbled out of the car when the merc pulled out a pistol and fired a shot shattering the side mirror of the sedan, everyone hit the ground, the merc pulled the trigger again but the pistol had jammed, Jimmy ran up to him and they both started fighting, the merc ran away from the monkey man until they ran into a business called Giorgio's pawn shop, the seedy pawn shop owner sneered at them, "Well looks like the spider caught a couple of flies," and he knocked them both out.

TBC


	3. Max Tells It Like It Is

Authors note: I changed my mind, I want to keep on uploading because 37 or 38 chapters is a lot for a story.

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Within moments Jimmy and the mysterious mercenary were tied up Jimmy was still bleeding slightly, the aardvark man merc had a black eye. Jimmy had some cuts from the broken glass that had dried up, this scene seemed deadly familiar, it wasn't good, and it reminded him of Pulp Fiction… No it was like Pulp Fiction except it was going to be much worse like a bad movie playing.

The pawn shop owner known as Giorgio was brandishing a baseball bat threatening both Jimmy and the mercenary, "When Jed gets here the fun will begin."

"I am Jimmy Crosswire, you better let me go, my uncle is Ed Crosswire, and the Crosswire's will sue your ass!"

"I don't care if you are a world leader, but we got two birds with one stone" The seedy aardvark man replied, then threatened to hit Jimmy, "If you both shut up, and face your punishments then you will both be allowed to leave, if you both get into trouble, then we kill you both.

Within moments Jed had arrived, he was a piss poor county sheriff known as Tanzanian from Teal County who had worked with Roscoe Davenport; he was only arraigned but is working to get Sonny out of Jail.

"Ok, the fun will begin!" Jed yelled, he pointed at the mercenary, "You are first."

Jed and the shop keep untied the merc and dragged him into the next room, Jimmy could hear groaning, "Shut up!" Jed yelled at the merc and turned to Giorgio, "Giorgio get the chili oil!"

"Oh god!" Jimmy yelled he knew what they were doing to the poor man, which was most likely something painful as they were sadists he heard the screams from the mercenary as they used chili oil on him; Jimmy untied the rope and left the pawn shop.

There he ran into Reno he grabbed the collar of the suit and pushed him against the wall, "You! I am going to kill you! I am going to wrap my hands around your neck and strangle you to death!"

"You won't believe what went on in there," Jimmy replied as he was getting the life chocked out of him.

Reno didn't care, "Well, you better have a good explanation for the police, they want information, and the Crosswire name is like a rash on their computers apparently."

"That guy I hit had a chainsaw; no normal person walks around carrying a chainsaw and wears armor!"

They just went back to Crosswire motors saying nothing Reno wanted to kill him but that wouldn't be the best way, moments after they both left the old country commissioner arrived, Davenport who was driving a crappy pickup truck parked it, the overweight bear man dressed in white as he was smoking a very cheap cigar walked into the pawn shop. He saw what they were doing to the poor man and he just watched as Giorgio shoot the mercenary dead, "Excellent, when Salvatore Benneditto arrives and his brothers arrive the death of the cultists will come we will resurrect Tony and pick up Sonny today… They will rue the day when they cross Roscoe Davenport! Now get that corpse out of here!"

They had wrapped it in several sheets of cloth tying his hands and legs together and dumped it in the back of a pickup truck they had drove to a bridge that wasn't too busy and dumped the body off the bridge.

---

Mr. Crosswire was waiting for Reno and Jimmy of course, "So how did the meeting go? Sell a lot of cars?"

"Your nephew should tell you," Reno stated as he was annoyed he had visions of killing Jimmy with a crowbar.

"I kind of went extreme when I told the police officer something called 'the awful truth', he just told us to get out."

Mr. Crosswire grumbled under his breath, "Jimmy, when you sell a police officer, paramedic or fire fighter a vehicle, please stick to the facts and don't make it into CSI or Law and Order. You sir are fired."

"But uncle!" Jimmy exclaimed as he was escorted off the property.

Mr. Clarkson chuckled, "Good riddance to some bad rubbish..."

"What was that Reno?"

Reno stopped laughing, "Nothing sir."

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"We better get going," One of the handmaidens stated, "Word from the locals is that some mercenaries and heresy lords are on the way here to detain you both."

Sue Ellen, Fern and the five handmaidens quickly left the planet, "Where to?" Fern asked.

Within moments, the hand maidens gave Sue Ellen and Fern some outfits, they were dark gothic outfits.

Sue Ellen was far from impressed with the choice of outfit a dark silky like outfit, "Fern I am picking the next planet you know."

They got off the ship and it was raining, and they ran into the sanctuary.

Fern sighed happily, "I like the outfit its dark and has a nice feeling to the skin."

There were many aliens and other non alien species wearing outfits that was dark colored the skin of these inhabitants was pale as the planet didn't have much sunshine but was life sustainable at about 80 Celsius.

"Next time I pick the planet." Sue Ellen replied she didn't like the clothes or the planet at all.

She sighed, as she looked outside the gloomy street that resembled a mid 18th century street, with cobblestone walkways, many devices of punishment at the time in the town square even places to hang people, Sue Ellen almost fainted as she had seen an alien corpse that was an aardvark with devil horns removed.

One of the police officers wearing something of an old style 18th century London police uniform looked at Sue Ellen who looked like she was going to be sick, "Don't worry, he was sentenced for killing and drinking the blood of a female virgin for satanic purposes."

Sue Ellen ran to the nearest trash can and threw up, Fern ran over to see her and she heard thunder "Thundering, we better get indoors..."

The handmaiden sat them both down, "This planet is well known for their strong affection for horror movies and cult horror films, it is their lively hood to make the whole planet look scary, this side of the planet doesn't have the fear hounds, and it is usually dark overcast days with rain and some thunderstorms, there really hasn't been a sunny day here for a while."

Sue Ellen sighed nervously as she held her stomach and looked at the black roses on the coffee table, "…great." This wasn't good for her morale; she had secretly hoped some heresy lords would come so they could change planets.

"We are going to have so much fun here!" Fern commented excitedly, "We can tell horror stories and force Buster here."

Sue Ellen explained, "Apparently Buster traveled through here, he went into some sort of shock being exposed to too much of the fear hounds scent."

One of the handmaidens began to speak, "The moon of Exodus is faithfully known as 'the land of the dead' to the locals they bury the dead here now, but years... 20000 years ago they did it here, but people wanted to settle here instead; enough about that lets just get some rest."

"…Wait," Fern interjected, "Tell us some sort of scary story or legend that was based here."

"Are you sure?" The handmaiden replied, "It is scary."

"Yea, go ahead."

"Ok, 10000 years ago, Exodus was pretty much a small colonized planet population under 400000 but growing, the colonists weren't used to the fear that struck them when the fear hounds came to emit their scent, as generations had past the people here had developed an immunity to the scent, this place doesn't have an army, they hire soldiers and hunters to kill any fear hound due to the Fear Hound Act passed 20000 years ago in the Senate based on Corn. Member planets thought it was a waste of money, Gaia, Terra and Obsidian was the ones who were able to sway the vote but rumors claimed it was rigged because someone got some of the scent and put it in the diplomat's quarters, so they voted for it, the main council was for the act and it passed."

"This really isn't scary…" Fern criticized as she hoped for something really scary.

"Well, just wait, there was a squadron of soldiers sent here from Rydia, they were sent to investigate some strange activity in some catacombs, when they went in none had returned, legend said a demonic monster had killed them, the monster was towering at five meters, it used its teeth to rip a persons head off, its claws could tear the skin as their claws were about five inches long; the monster looked like a oversized pit bull, it had razor sharp teeth, and to any locals who had seen it, it was like Cujo on steroids which we will be watching if you both are up to it.. The members of his squad had died, as they were torn apart by the monsters from within."

And she continued to talk about the legend.

Moments later Sue Ellen and Fern were in bed, their eyes wide open trembling with fear. This nervousness wasn't helping them as they could both hear howling in the distance.

--------------------------------

On Earth it was daytime; Arthur confronted D.W. "D.W. Max had to go to the hospital; you know where you kicked Max?"

"Yea?" D.W. asked as she thought she finally got rid of them.

Arthur continued to tell of the situation that happened, "He is actually a girl now, he had to go in for surgery because you kicked him and it destroyed his reproductive organs."

Muffy was with Max she was dressing him up like a girl, he was wearing one of Muffy's dresses, "I don't want to do this!"

"Calm down… put the cup on it won't hurt if she does it again."

Max was a bit confused, "Why are you still here? Thought you went to some fancy private school."

Muffy started to explain, "My parent's didn't like it; they figured I should come back here…"

Muffy did the final touches, did Max's hair and now Max was a dead giveaway as a girl as he had stolen Fern's red hair bow.

Buster checked him... (Or her) out, "Hey good looking, how about me and you go on a date?"

Max turned around, "Yea right…"

Buster freaked and ran inside he was wearing his normal clothes, to Mr. Ratburn, "M-Max is wearing a dress!"

Mr. Ratburn sighed, "Buster, I want you to walk out that door, and pretend that we never had this conversation…"

Arthur had signaled Max to walk forward and D.W. was shocked, "See this is what the result of your action was he won't be a boy ever again."

D.W. was horrified, "I am sorry! I didn't know there were bad things!"

Max started to laugh as D.W. took a deep breath and… "(BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP) YOU!"

In Mr. Haney's office

"Dear lord, that was the loudest swear word I ever heard anyone say!" Mr. Haney said as he was shocked and appalled as he looked outside along with everyone else in the area.

Outside D.W. kicked Max in the same spot but it didn't faze him because of the cup. Max walked back to the limo and he changed into his usual blue jeans and black shirt, he walked up to join Arthur and D.W.

D.W. confronted Max, "Well?"

"We are not going to the TV studio," Max whined, "And how did you like your punishment?"

"No comment," D.W. smiled evilly, "I _will_ tell your mother that you hit me last night."

Max wasn't fazed by the threat, "You are going to be gravely disappointed when they don't allow you to go on the show."

The bell rang and he went to class, Max sat down at his desk with a bored look on his face he had forgot something so he got up and he gave his teacher an apple, he didn't want to be the one to tell D.W. this but it was nagging inside him, he turned to Arthur, "Your sister is a pain."

"Welcome to my world," Arthur joked as it wasn't anything new, "What is she doing this time?"

"Everything," Max replied as everything was wrong, "She wants me to take her to a TV studio."

Arthur laughed, "I am not even going to ask, but for some reason this interests me…"

"What will my mom say?" Max asked nervously, "She will think I am being bullied, and well it will be too embarrassing…"

Arthur chuckled, "What does your mom do when you are getting bullied?"

"Well she walks me to school and hunts down the person who bullied me."

Buster pointed at Max, "You are evil."

"No, you are, you push a lackluster TV show called Postcards from Buster, PBS has enough problems with funding as it is…"

Buster was frozen in his tracks he looked like he was going to wet his pants, as well as he looked like he was going to cry.

Max and Arthur continued their conversation.

Arthur reassured him, "D.W. _is_ no bully, but a pain, she has done some silly things in her life, but she truly is afraid of an octopus."

"Where am I to get one? Can you buy one in a pet store?" Max asked as he hasn't seen one before.

"Well, you could make one… but Sue Ellen or Fern are good at being creative, so I wouldn't know…" Arthur stated as it was a dumb suggestion, "Jack's joke shop could have plastic octopuses."

Mrs. Armstrong was writing some notes when the Brain walked in, "I am not worried about Fern and Sue Ellen; I just want to see for their safe return."

"I know I want them back here where they belong, but if some strange people are after them, it just doesn't sit right with me how they have to travel to many strange places without their parents being there."

The Brain had the right words, blunt words but completely right for the time, "It is called self sacrifice."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed again; it was almost true. Those words had pierced through her like a knife as she was eating the Granny Smith apple, "I know…"

TBC


	4. Paddy O' The Mighty

Author's note: I bet you know which movie is referenced in this chapter.

----------------------

Sue Ellen woke up in a cold sweat as did Fern; both girls were pacing and sweating profusely they were scared. They needed to know what happened to the soldier. They were really jumpy and slight noise made them jump like the creaky floorboards or the sound of a door on rusty hinges opening slowly, or a nail rubbing against a piece of wood on a hardwood floor.

They were arguing on who was going to ask the one who told the story.

Sue Ellen spoke her voice quivered with fear, "Fern you ask."

While Fern shot back, "No Sue Ellen, you ask."

After minutes of arguing, they both agreed to ask.

"What happened to the one soldier?"

The handmaiden woke up tiredly as she rubbed her eyes, "He got out, but is suffering from post traumatic stress, and a moderate case of shock from seeing his squadron die. He was sent off the planet for some healing but no one heard from him since."

"Will we encounter the monsters you were talking about?"

"If you wander out in the wilderness here you will, and they attack on sight, if you want to kill one, you will need about 15 super tranquilizers and a very sharp knife to cut him from ear to ear."

One of the handmaidens looked out the window and saw to mercenaries and a heresy lord wearing dark clothes.

"Decimator the Mighty… we must move."

They ran out the hotel, and the mercenaries and Decimator were following suit into the wilderness.

"You are all going to give up the chase right now," the bear man stated as he pulled out some rope to tie both girls up.

A herd of monsters that resembled oversized pit-bulls with sharp horns on their foreheads surrounded the bad guys.

Decimeter did a choke hold killing one and the rest of the pact had attacked him.

The two mercenaries fought off the monsters but it was too late, Sue Ellen and Fern were gone and Decimeter was decimated literally.

"Oh my god!" one of the mercenaries yelled in horror; and he started throwing up seeing that there literally wasn't much left of the heresy lord it was all chunky kibbles.

The two girls and the handmaidens left the planet moments later.

---------------------------

On Shadonia Cyrax the mighty was doing a chart. A chart of which mercenaries and heresy lords had failed.

"Ok, Crush, and Axe got hit by a car and died on impact; Sin got hit by a car, killed by some Earthlings and dumped off a bridge, Decimator the Mighty was killed by the bull-demons."

Other heresy lords had come for a meeting, Cyrax was at a podium, "Delegates, we are still searching and searching, we have some new heresy lords joining our cause."

A sour looking bear man of 5'5" wearing a black tunic and black pants, he was wearing a strange bracelet of good luck charms which were made out of marshmallows, "This is Paddy O' The Mighty; please tell us about yourself."

"I am Paddy, every member of the Order... or other person I kill I collect a marshmallow from the cereal Good Luck Charms and add it to my bracelet."

Cyrax had chuckled. This heresy lord must have fallen from the stupid tree or something.

"WHAT? They are always after me Good Luck Charms!" A dark looking Heresy lady chuckled, "They are after me Good Luck Charms!" Paddy yelled angrily as he was threatening the heresy now, "What is so funny?"

"It is just like that cereal that the kids eat with the good luck charm shaped marshmallows, and the kids are like hey leprechaun, leprechaun, and they are chasing him," She replied as she managed a chuckle.

A Heresy lord wearing armor made out of bones, "Are you retarded or something? Did you hit every branch of the stupid tree when you fell from it?"

Paddy sliced the bone armored heresy lords head off with his weapon, "I am (bleep)ing serious!"

"My young apprentice Valiant the Mighty will take care of them," Cyrax stated.

"He is only 25 years old," the bone armored heresy lord replied, "He is new, he is surely to fail. He isn't fully mastered yet."

"He has a sword and a special beam sword that he built where barbed wired winds around the beam, extremely painful once hit, either the person will bleed a lot or get cut by the beam."

The strong looking aardvark man looked at them, "I will get them, I constructed my sword out of chicken wire and barbed wire, and that stuff cuts like anything, sewn and infused with steel makes gives it a powerful cut."

"If you go after them I am going to slit your throat and add another charm to my bracelet, they are mine to train, and I don't want some redneck using a barb wired modified weapon and chicken wire to capture them!" Paddy warned.

There was no going past angry old Paddy, he wanted to reap the rewards of victory himself, not some inept heresy lord thinking that fighting with a modified weapon will ever work… it won't it was a silly idea to begin with.

"Fine if we meet somewhere we are going to fight to the death."

--------------------------------

Mrs. Armstrong sighed sadly as Buster ate some Buster Cluster's, "What's wrong?"

"Sue Ellen is gone, Fern is gone."

"You know what really helps me when I feel sad?"

"What?"

"I eat some Buster Cluster's."

"…I don't think so; they turn your tongue black and give you a rash."

Buster scratched his arm. It was true, he didn't know where he got the rash from, it was definitely the candy.

Max walked in noticing Buster eating the candy, "Can I have some?"

"…Sure," Buster replied happily as he handed him a piece of the chocolate colored candy, "Someone else to enjoy the candy I made!"

Max had ate some and spat it out, "That candy is terrible!"

"It is some candy I made," Buster replied innocently, "Don't bash it I made it with my blood sweat and tears!"

"You are sick!" Max exclaimed as he almost threw up.

"It is a figure of speech," Mrs. Armstrong reassured him.

Max was drinking from his juice box, the taste of those candies were like ashes in his mouth, "No comment."

After school when Mrs. Armstrong got home, the two heresy lords; Paddy and Valiant who seemed to be at odds, Paddy waited, "We can do this the hard way or the easy way."

"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Armstrong asked.

"Your daughter and her friend," he pulled out his weapon.

Valiant was walking down the street and found a two by four, "This could work." He saw Paddy yelling at Mrs. Armstrong, "We will just see about that; I won't allow him to yell at a woman; its policy..."

Valiant walked in and hit Paddy as hard as he could with the piece of wood, it had broken in half.

"Ahh!" he screamed as he felt his arm shatter in two or three places.

The two heresy lords were fighting over Cyrax's bounty, using various weapons, people watched them thinking it was some sort of backyard wrestling match. Valiant pulled out some barbed wire and wrapped it around a piece of wood and started striking Paddy with it.

Patty had cuts on his arms, stomach and legs; he found a beer bottle and smashed it over the head of his enemy.

Valiant stumbled until he had found a porta-potti and he put Paddy's head in the bowl, within two minutes Paddy drowned and died. Valiant walked away saying nothing. It was a very nasty death for Paddy. All Valiant did as he continued to walk was get rid of the standard heresy weapon by destroying it with his sword, he had enough of this. He was going to sabotage Cyrax, but first he had changed his name to his old name which was Rex he walked down the street and disassembled his weapon.

Buck took notice of him as he drove past him in his 4 x 4 pickup truck, "Jump in we need a guy like you."

The man in his mid twenties did just that.

"You have potential kid, I see a lot of good enforcers in my day, and I would like you to join myself, Reno and Moss... whenever he returns we are in for protection now."

"I feel blessed, that guy was going to kill that nice lady, and I couldn't let that happen."

----------------

"We are going to Tigris!" Sue Ellen exclaimed as the handmaiden set the course.

"You both have a mission from Reno, and that is to secure the escape of his and Maria's family, they are to get off the planet, and go to Earth or another planet; the nearest planet is Gaia; when this mission is done, we will make a quick stop at Outpost D-34 drop them off and they will go the rest of the way.

The ship had landed on the lush planet; it was hot today and of course Fern and Sue Ellen were sweating they were both wearing all black, "Get out of those clothes and into something that the locals wear."

They had looked at the tiger inhabitants, and were all wearing standard street clothes, they ran inside the ship to change and got back out, a handmaiden looked at them, "Be careful, some of the inhabitants here may attack you if you have the hilt of your weapons exposed, tell them that you were sent by the Senate to secure the release of some refugees."

They had seen 4 females of around 30 years old and 4 males of the same age, four tiger people of around 60 and two elderly tiger people of about 90 years old. Two tiger babies, a tiger boy and girl of around 12 or years old.

An older Tiger man introduced himself, as he walked up to the two girls, "You must be Sue Ellen and Fern, I am Carson, Reno's father, and I understand you are here to help us off here."

"Yes..."

He continued to talk, "I haven't seen my grandson in such a long time; I hope he is doing well..."

"Ok, can we all get out of here without anyone noticing?" Fern asked as she had seen some armed security guards walking around; she didn't want to fight or hurt anyone.

He had handed Fern a briefcase, "Here is 10000 Tigrisian Cole, bribe the port guard and he will let us all through."

Sue Ellen walked up to the white uniformed tiger man with a strong build, she handed him the money, "Here is the money, now can we leave with those people over there?"

He opened up the briefcase and counted the money, "Thanks."

They had all walked through, Sue Ellen and Fern being last to go on to ensure they didn't miss anyone.

Within moments guards started shooting at them, "Stop that ship! Blast them!"

"Start the ship!" Fern screamed as everyone ran in all directions and they both got on board and blasted off light speed to D-34, it was busy, with aliens and many anthros going from one planet to another, it was merely like a subway, stop for travellers and had a hotel and many other amenities.

There Sue Ellen and Fern had rested at a hotel.

"It will take us time to get to Earth, besides the next ship to that part of the galaxy won't arrive for a few weeks, the nearest planet is Gaia, and we will convert our $50000 Tigrisian Cole and end up with about $450000 Gaian Shoats.

They had went their separate ways and were going to Terra now, which wasn't horribly far from Gaia or D-34 for that matter.

Sue Ellen, Fern and the handmaidens went to Terra, as they were close to landing the ship ran into trouble, it was sabotaged and started to fall apart, Sue Ellen fell out about 10 to 15 feet above ground in one spot, one or two clicks away the hand maidens fell out and a few clicks away from them Fern did as well. Strewn about the Terran country side was not a good thing.

TBC


	5. A Made Man

Sue Ellen had crashed through the roof of a small house, startling the inhabitant, who was about two to three feet tall, with pink wings on its back, a red pom-pom on its head, a red nose and the strange creature had pale pink fur.

"K-kupo?" one of the strange creatures said nervously. As he was shocked, he flew over to her. A group of these strange creatures had surrounded her talking in a strange alien language.

Sue Ellen was unconscious though she landed on something soft; they had placed her on a soft bed.

The female creatures moogles wearing pink shirts looked at her mysteriously as they tried to revive her but she was out cold.

-------------------------------

Fern on the other hand landed in another village, full of dark mages.

"What th-?" The dark cloaked mage asked seeing Fern lying on his bed as there was a hole in the roof of the hut. She was slightly injured but they had used healing herbs to help her.

Fern looked up; the populace's faces couldn't be seen just yellow eerie colored eyes.

"Are you an angel?" One of the mages asked as they seemed to hadn't left the village before.

A sad smile formed on her face, "No, my ship had some problems and we all fell out, where is Sue Ellen?"

"Who?"

"Oh no…" Fern said sadly as a tear streamed down her check, "Alone…"

This wasn't good, in a village full of strangers, Fern of course was scared, and she almost felt like crying, she couldn't cry, she needed to stay strong, a tear streamed down her face, "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, we rarely get visitors in this village, some are afraid of us; but anyways I am sure your other occupants will come around."

"Sue Ellen was the first to fall off the rickety ship, a few clicks away from here."

"The nearest place is the Mog Village."

Fern looked at her weapon, the hilt broke open and the crystal had shattered, "Can you take me there?"

"Only if you promise to stay with us."

"But…" was Ferns bitter response, then she said in a small voice, "I am from Earth..."

----------------------------

Back at the other village, Sue Ellen woke up dazed and confused, staring in the face of the strange creature.

"Kupo?"

Sue Ellen was shocked she jumped up, "D-did I die? Did I cross over to the land of the dead?" She noticed the strange creature's wings, "Where are my wings?"

An older looking moogle walked in he was about knee high to Sue Ellen's height, he was walking with a simple wooden cane, and he had spoke English, instead of the language of Kuppoinan "I am the town elder, you had a hard landing."

"Where is my friend?"

"You landed here, but there had been a report of a ship crashing about 10 clicks away."

"You mean?"

"Some are saying that they survived while others say they are dead."

Sue Ellen hugged the strange creature, the fur was soft to the touch and she was crying she thought she was alone on a planet many light years away from Earth. One thought that had crossed her mind was that she could live with these creatures and they could raise her as one of their own.

All she had asked was, "Can I stay here?"

"Sure…" The elderly creature replied courteously knowing the poor cat girl couldn't survive on her own.

---------------------------------

Back on Earth two heresy lords were at a bar, Louis was walking down the street when an evil looking cat man wearing red and black pointed at Louis, he had disregarded it and continued into the bar. As they walked in the strange looking cat man threw a small shard of metal and the glass had shattered.

One of the heresies chuckled at Louis and said, "Looks like you made an enemy."

"Yea…"

The two heresy lords looked at Louis they had seen what transpired, a monkey man spoke, "We will help you, if you help us."

"Whatever…" Louis replied as he shook the glass chips off his dark shirt and khakis.

Within a few minutes Louis was outside the bar wrapping some barbed wire around a baseball bat; the two heresy lords just chuckled, and all one said was, "Hardcore."

"What weapons do you have?"

They pulled out their beam swords and started them.

Louis and the two heresy lords walked through the dead woods, through the back alleys until they confronted him.

The man in red and black sneered at this pitiful display, "Louis… A simpleton… Your last stand is here and you bought some lackeys to fight… You will fall amongst they ranks of heresy soon enough, but now we fight to prevent that from happening."

One heresy lord found a two by four and hit him, the mysterious cat man grabbed it and broke it in half with his forehead.

"Oh (bleep)…" One of the heresy lords said as he lost confidence.

The two heresy lords started their weapons and the mysterious cat man pulled out a long sword and slashed the two blades causing the beams to shatter, he had soon killed the two heresy lords.

The cat man in red and black pointed at Louis, "Ok, me and you, its go time, fight to the death."

Louis pulled out the barbed wire bat, he slouched down making him appear shorter than his 5'6" height and medium build as he looked at the evil looking man, whose face was concealed by red and black cloth, and his eyes couldn't be seen, he looked around and found a empty garbage can, he picked it up and threw it at him, Louis fell to the ground, he tried getting up but found himself at the wrong end of the blade with the blade penetrating his left shoulder as he tried to grab the barbed wire bat. The evil cat man pulled it out as blood seeped out of Louis' arm and the evil cat man pulled the sword out and managed to uppercut him with the blade of the sword.

"Oh god!" Louis stuttered as the man in red and black hit him in the chest with the barbed wire bat, he literally struck home.

Giorgio had walked around the corner and the cat man had disappeared, Louis struggled to get up the bat fell off him he limped as he felt his back muscles seize up, he was bleeding from the chest and other parts of his body, as he got up he vomited up who knows what, his back was damaged from the pitiful crusade he had done; he limped a few feet as there was damage to his back and he collapsed.

-------------------------------

At the hospital Louis was laying in the hospital bed when he slowly opened his eyes, he slowly focused his eyes and all Mrs. Armstrong had said to him was, "First Sue Ellen and Fern go on a crusade now you pick a fight with someone. You have a certain way with people… Which some find offensive."

"There is someone out there who wants me dead, and he pretty much…"

Giorgio chuckled as he interrupted him, "He pretty much went to work on you."

"God… my head is pounding what happened?"

A doctor had come in, "Whoever attacked you from what I understand stabbed you and threw a garbage can at you, and he had also killed two of your friends…"

Mr. Freeman, had come in he had presented Louis with the baseball bat and the hilt from the heresy lords weapons, "Do these belong to you?"

"The baseball bat."

"IF you want to end up dead don't confront him…" he then added, "It isn't my job talking people out of killing themselves…"

"Hmph…" He replied and they had both left.

Giorgio started to talk, "My name is Giorgio Benneditto and I want you to work with the Benneditto Family mafia, I had seen the gutless acts by that person who attacked you, if you work with us you will be a made man."

Louis of course had a fantasy scene. In the tune of the main theme of the godfather.

He was walking down the narrow streets of Little Italy in some large city, looking like a Don as old Italian aardvark baker shown up, "Don Louis, my sona don't call anymore…" Louis interrupted him as the baker gave him a donut, "Graci. Call him and whatnot…"

He continued walking, and an elderly Italian cat woman came up with a potted tomato plant which was well dead, "Don Louis, I am havinga problems with my tomatoes they just won't grow."

"Ahh, ahh one problem at a time," and he blessed the plant, as she gave him a donut, "Thatsa nisa donut…"

He continued walking some more down a narrow street and someone ran into him, "Oh Don Louis." The poodle man started kissing the many rings on the Don's fingers, "Don't get me whacked it was an accident! Here I bought you some canoli"

And he handed him the Italian dessert

End Fantasy Scene

Louis just chuckled at the fantasy he had about becoming Don, "I guess this is what painkillers does…

Giorgio left the hospital altogether and went into his black SUV, he turned the radio on and the main theme of the TV series _The Sopranos_ was on from the beginning as he drove through Elwood City passing cars and businesses as well as civilians.

He had stopped at the Read House, and had walked in; Mr. Read was decorating a cake, "May I help you?"

"I want you to give the Benneditto family Mafia a cut."

Mr. Read of course was defensive, "Forget it."

"Then you won't mind if I tell your wife of the relationship you have with Mr. Ratburn. I have read _Fuzzy Fuzzy Cool!_ Up to chapter 8, once Jane finds out what you've been doing she will leave you!"

"Here is $150!" Mr. Read exclaimed.

Giorgio had left with the money in hand, and right after Mr. Ratburn walked in wearing nothing but a Speedo, "Hey what happened?"

"Nothing." Mr. Read replied and he turned to Mr. Ratburn, they had embraced, "I remember when we first had done this eight months ago and my wife wasn't around, it was hot loving."

An hour later Giogio had arrived at State Pen, "Sonny Benneditto," Giorgio said as he looked through the jail cell.

"Giorgio, I will be getting out on good behavior today, Salvatore is with you, as is the shaman he is going to get Tony back and we will end Muffy and Buck and that cult who messed up the deal!" he then whispered, in a dark tone, "That cult will die! They will pay for their insolence! We will get some cement shoes fitted for them."

Within an hour Sonny was out, carrying his stuff, they had went to the graveyard dug up the grave and the Shaman had brought Tony back to life.

"Tony Benneditto." Sonny announced as they had done the traditional mafia kiss, "Tony since that unfortunate accident happened, I assumed power as Don, so I wield the power of the Black Hand."

Tony chuckled, "I am going to vow revenge on those who spit in the face of the Benneditto Family mafia."

The four aardvarks in fine Italian suits went to a hideout with the shaman, "Giorgio Benneditto, an angry man…"

Giorgio was always angry, "Hey shut up Tony."

"Salvatore Benneditto, his name is like a rash on the police records."

"Just because I killed a group of Mexican gangsters destroyed their drug shipment, they want us all dead, but Sonny, I see you made good progress with Roscoe…"

"Giorgio, the fast talking one who is unpredictable at times," Sonny talked.

"Who will be our first mission to place a hit on?" Sal asked.

"Buck Vargas and Muffy Crosswire…" Tony stated.

"If not them, kill anyone who has armor and a weapon," Giorgio ordered, "The pawn shop is a front for illegal activities, we killed someone who wore armor and a chainsaw. We are going to get rid of these cultists before we go through with our kidnapping for 60 cars and a million dollars."

"Some mysterious guy killed anyone guy with a porta-potti," Sal added, "They must know something we don't…"

"I met the person who was attacked by one of those cultists… he was medicated as he was laughing about something…" Giorgio commented then laughed as he pulled out a Cuban and had lit it, "He had dreams of becoming a Don."

-----------------

Sue Ellen was learning to adjust to her newfound life, she was wondering what to do now, when the older creature looked at her, "There is a place not too far from here that kidnaps members of our village, it is a slave labor camp, I want you to get them here. Sometime when you return I want to teach you the language," He had handed her a map, it was about a 30 minute walk away from her current location.

Sue Ellen ran and followed the map and in 30 minutes she had found the place, the creatures were getting hurt and were being pushed around by strange aliens and some anthros she walked in.

"A member of the order?" One of the aardvark men said as he held a strange staff that had sparks emitting at the end of it.

Sue Ellen was calm, "I want you to shut down this horrible place and let the moogles go..."

"I am afraid I can't let that happen, because they are used for cheap labor..."

Sue Ellen started to argue, "Exactly, they are getting hurt and _you_ stand idly by watching them die."

A few alien security guards spoke to the aardvark man in a strange language that not even the author could decipher, "No everything is fine."

"No it isn't let them go!" She screamed.

The security had their weapons pointed at her, as was any one forcing the small creatures into slave labor.

She fell on her knees crying she was defenseless, she decided to use her words, "Your weapons... don't use them on another person looking for peace, I come from a planet light-years away from here facing persecution, I don't know if you guys have any mercy, but please let this mayhem stop killing defenseless creatures is going too far..."

The aardvark man was surprisingly, crying, "Ok, you win, we will let them go."

However when she got up a cloaked heresy lord appeared his face couldn't be seen, "Finally caught you, be a nice girl and come, Cyrax won't be too tough on you…" Sue Ellen nervously walked forward and pulled the cloak over his head without warning, "Sonova!"

He ran around struggling to get it off but ran off a cliff; "Arrrgggggghhhhh!" and obviously he fell to his death.

"See? These strange cloaked heresy people are after me and my friend, I am being persecuted by them because they are obsessed with capturing me," Soon Sue Ellen and the small creatures have left the awful place.

"Why did you let her go?" One of the English speaking guards asked.

"My daughter died for the same principles when she was around her age, the cat girl stood up for what was right even though she was standing alone..."

----------------------------

Back in the village the elder was drinking some tea, and reading an old book dated probably 500 years old, "The prophecy is true; the cat girl from the sky would bring justice to our race..."

To Be Continued.


	6. Sue Ellen Takes A Walk On The Wild Side

Sue Ellen was in bush country, she was in a thatch hut with these strange… yet intelligent creatures, her weapon was broken as well, it didn't seem like a problem she wanted to get out of this nightmare as soon as possible. She was looking around for some clothes; the robe was a dead giveaway she managed to change out of it in a nearby bush, cover her chest and waist with some leaves successfully and came out. No one could see her private parts or anything. This outfit of leaves was… strange very strange indeed.

"I will stay here…" she stated truthfully, she did seem content here. But the sad truth was Fern wouldn't like it because they should really think about going home.

The older creature sighed; he figured 'what was she doing?' "If you are, then you better watch out for the poachers."

"Poachers?" Sue Ellen asked.

The faerie explained, "They hunt us with crossbows."

Sue Ellen was now officially scared she could only communicate with those who spoke English, which was known as… Basic, if she were to adapt, she needed to learn the language of these creatures, as many of them didn't speak English.

She turned to the elder, "I need help learning the language."

"Well, it is one word, but many different meanings depending on how you say it like yelling 'Kupo' in fear means something is wrong and you need help."

After many hours of explaining and studying she had mastered most of the language… it was a small vocabulary, but she was speaking it in a broken dialect but luckily they managed to understand her.

"I actually think you are part of the prophecy here," the older moogle shown her the old book, "It states here that one day peace will come when the cat girl who falls from the sky shows up."

"Uhh... thanks I guess..."

"Ku po ku ku po Kupponian..." the creature replied; loosely translated he said, 'try it in Kupponian.'

She tried, "K-kupo ku po-po"

He chuckled, "Excellent, you are very welcome."

Back at the mage village, Fern had traded her robe for the traditional black mage outfit, the mages gave her a solid oak wand with a polished gem at the end of it, "I need to look for Sue Ellen."

"You don't know how to use the wand, the village is a few clicks away from here which I assume your friend has landed, but be careful, they are high strung," one of the mages warned he looked at her nervously as she looked at the wand with wonder, "I can teach you."

Fern pointed the wand out, but nothing happened.

"Not like that," he grabbed the wand and pointed it out, within moments the gem glowed mysteriously an eerie yellow color and a fireball came from it, "What you do is you think of what form of magic you want to use and it will happen, this is a starter's wand usually handed to those starting their venture to becoming a dark mage," and he handed it back to her.

He straightened up his pointy hat. As they had walked down the road with two of the mages, it was pretty much an unpaved road with fields of a strange fruit on both sides, when they have made it to the village, Sue Ellen was there; Fern was shocked, "Sue Ellen? Do you realize what you are wearing?"

"Leaves?"

All Fern said was, "Yea…"

"I am going to stay here with them; they will raise me as one of their own…"

"You can't, stop getting these crazy ideas! Do you know how long it will be if to be brought back to civilization? We need to get back to Earth, the handmaidens are gone!" There wasn't really no way going past Fern, the brains behind this operation, she actually knew what she was doing, she was thinking Sue Ellen had lost it; the cat girl in fact was wearing leaves and was communicating with the strange creatures, "We need to find a way to get home! And _you_ to get some suitable clothes; frankly I am embarrassed of you right now; you look like someone who has lost all their clothes and had resorted to wearing leaves!"

Sue Ellen sighed, it _wasn't_ the best outfit, but she needed to make due, "Why must you criticize me? I want to stay here; before the poachers come they need protection..."

Fern lowered her head, "You will get hurt, I worry about you," Fern looked down at Sue Ellen's stomach, she was forming a small belly, "You should probably lose some weight."

Sue Ellen was shocked, "I only gained five pounds! It is these stupid pills…"

Sue Ellen was lying, Fern knew it, "You haven't taken any; when you are ready to leave, meet me in the dark mage village."

Fern and the two mages accompanying her turned around and walked back towards the other village. Sue Ellen on the other hand went back into the hut, with the elder, she had sighed in disbelief and sat on a stool. This was a huge fight between the two girls, Fern out of nowhere criticizing Sue Ellen's actions; the cat girl was doing this by choice.

Sue Ellen had eaten some of the fruit, the town elder was a bit worried, "Don't eat too much of that, it isn't good for the non-faeries."

"Why?"

"Well it may make a non-faerie sick, for the faeries it keeps magic levels high."

Sue Ellen looked down nervously, was this path for her to take? Did she want to throw her life away by eating the fruit and getting very sick? She had nervously finished up the fruit, and got up, "It is delicious."

"No more fruit for you, we do eat some foods that humans can survive on though…"

This wasn't what she needed, she threw the fruit down, there was an extremely sour taste in her mouth and she was getting an upset stomach, but she shrugged it off as this wasn't right, she didn't want to resort to this, she needed one thing… and one thing only… to get Fern and get to a space port to get off this planet and back to Earth. Sue Ellen got up and went to sleep in the next room.

This was happening for the next week and a half; Sue Ellen and Fern were on 'no speaking terms' the cat girl was living with these divine creatures by herself. There were a few close calls with poachers but she managed to scare them off by making a home made slingshot and shooting them with some marbles and rocks. She was speaking Kupponian fluently now as the language had such a small vocabulary but was easy to learn all the words.

She learned many things, including climbing a tree really fast, to get the poachers with rocks, and using the pits of the fruit in a slingshot she made.

She was in the bush, some aardvark and alien poachers who wore camouflage as they were of average height and build as they had fully loaded crossbows. Sue Ellen looked at them, they looked at her, they were curious about her clothing as if someone abandoned her.

"Young girl?" The aardvark poacher asked, "Where are your parents?"

"K-kupo po-po..." Sue Ellen said as she spoke some of the creature's language, loosely translated she said, 'I live here…'

The poachers were speechless, and the lead poacher said, "Ok, we need to get her into town, but now to kill some of the moogles."

Sue Ellen picked up a rock and loaded a slingshot she made and shot a couple rocks at the poachers, this had shocked them and they had run off as they were almost caught by the animal protection guards in that part of Terra.

Sue Ellen ran back into the bush unscathed.

A few hours later she had come back and more poachers came, she saw the crossbows and she was shooting them with the slingshot, but the one guy shot a crossbow at her and she was almost hit, "Kupo, Kupo!" She screamed and ran off while the poachers soon got detained.

"There is a girl in there shooting us!" One of the poachers exclaimed as he was hassled by a guard, "I think her parents abandoned her and she was raised by the moogles!"

The security guard chuckled, "Well, you will have some explaining to do with this regions animal protection agency."

The guards confiscated the crossbows soon after.

And in those two weeks Fern was sitting in the hut, she was beside herself, she was far from impressed with Sue Ellen, she was wearing the traditional dark mage outfit, with the pointy hat, and dark blue clothing. She didn't need this, she didn't want to baby-sit her either, and it was a step forward losing the hand maidens even though they were lost somewhere. She was also hungry, the black mages had cooked her a dinner, it didn't have the faerie fruit in it, she nervously ate the vegetables, "I still can't believe this…"

"I hope your friend doesn't eat the faerie fruit…" one of the mages commented nervously.

Fern really wasn't in the mood, "Why? She should be divulging a plan to get back to Earth, it is her fault dragging me into this, and I don't really care what happens right now."

And Fern continued to eat dinner then she paused, as she lowered her head in sadness, "Perhaps I should cut her some slack and apologize to her…"

As Fern got up from the wooden table and she left the hut, she walked down the road; Sue Ellen was picking some berries with some of the strange creatures.

"Sue Ellen?" Fern asked as the cat girl was still wearing the leaves.

"I am sorry …"

"We need you to bring you back to civilization; it has been two weeks... going on three."

"…Fine." Sue Ellen replied.

She went back to the village and changed into the robe, it was the only piece of clothing she had.

The moogles and mages had that covered, they had taken them to the nearest city with a way to get back to Earth, and it was a bustling metropolis. But there wasn't much time to sightsee.

Sue Ellen was looking at things a bit differently, being in the bush for those few weeks changed the way she looked at the nature of things, and she essentially had learned the basic survival skills.

A half hour later they were back on Earth in Elwood City, the mood wasn't great, Fern looked like she was a dark mage of some sort, and Sue Ellen looked like a Jedi this was far from Halloween.

A sleek black car drove past them, the car was driving to the mansion the Crosswires lived at, Giorgio rolled down the window sat on the door next to Salvitore, and yelled, "Take this!" and the Benneditto's started shooting their machine guns towards the mansion shattering windows and putting bullet holes in brick and wood. They drove off as quickly as they could.

Police were quickly called and had arrived there shortly.

Sue Ellen and Fern followed the police cars as they heard the shots and ran towards the mansion; they had both walked down the familiar street Muffy lived on lined with big houses and oak trees in their yards, they had seen some police cars parked at Crosswire mansion.

Sue Ellen and Fern were shocked, Sue Ellen was almost scared, "Oh no… not here… not now…" she was almost losing it; she was almost going to shock seeing all the needless destruction from the distance.

Fern looked at her as Muffy, her parents and Bailey walked out, Fern looked at Sue Ellen and she snapped her fingers "Snap out of it…"

They had ran up to the mansion for closer inspection, bullet holes riddled the front windows, luckily no one was injured from this. Sue Ellen was hyperventilating; she was almost going to go into shock.

Buck came by he had a gruff expression on his face, he looked at Muffy, "They are after us…"

"Who?"

"The Benneditto's"

"Oh god Starla! She is going to die!" Muffy shrieked, "But that isn't possible… You killed Tony… Sonny is in jail."

"I seen Tony, he is as alive as that peach tree in your front yard, and you forgot Sonny, Giorgio and Salvatore Benneditto." Buck paused, "As for Starla and her mother, don't forget months ago she was in witness protection that is why no one has hardly seen them both."

Buck called Tony's wife and within moments his wife and his daughter Starla came by, the poodle girl was distraught of course, "What do you have planned?"

The dark mages who had accompanied them offered some help, "Come with us, get off the planet, they will give up once they don't find you," after a quick yet inept decision they had both went with the dark mages Fern and Sue Ellen handed them their weapons of the order, they didn't need them anymore.

"Guess we won't see them both for a while…"

"They fixed them for us..."

"Should we go home?" Fern asked tiredly.

"Yea."

They both had walked home with both results with their parents being shocked this was totally unexpected.

To Be Continued.


	7. Max's Crush

"Mom!" Sue Ellen yelled happily as she hugged her tightly.

Mrs. Armstrong was overwhelmingly happy, but it was overshadowed by the truth, "Sue Ellen, you shouldn't be here, it's too dangerous…"

Sue Ellen sighed, "I gave up on it I was too discouraged of the truth, I couldn't stand being away from here, home is where the heart is I am sorry for what happened before I left, I was embarrassed, kids were picking on me at school because you were teaching my class..."

Mrs. Armstrong was happy, "I am proud of you but at the same time disappointed, you are grounded for what happened before you left," The cat girl had taken her punishment with a lot of stride, it was expected to happen, but the most important thing was that she was home, "Now get ready for bed, we have school tomorrow."

Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn were relaxing in the hot tub that Mr. Ratburn had, they were in the buff as they sat there relaxing, "Jane won't be home for a while why don't we play hide the soap in the hot tub?

"I still am surprised you actually liked having a same sex relationship, I figure you would have tight knit morals.

"Jane doesn't know I am gay, neither do the kids, it is going to be a bit tough to tell them."

They started playing hide the soap.

---

The Benneditto's were watching one classic mafia movie, the Godfather in particular.

"The godfather always makes me cry..." Tony stated, "It was a complex movies about a complex godfather who had complex issues about keeping the family together through and through despite betrayal."

"We aren't going to knife people in the back," Sonny replied, "We are going to get rid of that monkey girl once and for all!"

"She is trouble..." Giogio stated, "I could have dealt with her myself, and she could get very well acquainted with what her brains looked like."

"That makes me sick, we are not going to kill her... yet, we are going to hold a ransom of $1 Million dollars." Sal explained, "PLUS... 60 hot cars, because our friend Roscoe is gone to team up with us as an associate but first to defeat these cultists in any means possible. I want am going to place a vendetta on these cultists, they aren't from Earth and are using our turf to kill people, we are the ones who are going to send them back, we are going to kill them."

---

The next day at school Fern and Sue Ellen were back in class, but Muffy wasn't of course, it was the mafia after Buck and Muffy, it seemed like they were trading places. Muffy was away now, it was odd how her parents wanted her to leave but explainable, with what happened last time Muffy got the jump and since they are practically 'disappeared' off the face of the earth it would be nearly impossible for the Benneditto's to find them.

Max had walked in giving Mrs. Armstrong yet another apple, while standing at the door D.W. leered at him, she didn't like him at all but at the same time she did, she expected him to take her to the studio for Mary Moo Cow to be one of the kids on the show. The sad thing about it was Max felt he was being intimidated by this and he didn't really need this. Aside from that everyone was now thinking Max was sucking up to Mrs. Armstrong by giving her apples everyday.

Buster joked, "So what's next? Chocolate? Or an apple called a pineapple?"

Max thought;

_That isn't a half bad idea._

"Where can I get one of these pineapples? From pine trees?" He asked but he didn't need anyone to know he had a crush on the teacher. However it had seemed so obvious that he did, "Be right back I am going to get a pineapple."

Buster was shocked, there was no possible way Max could get a pineapple and be back in time for Mrs. Armstrong to start the lesson.

Max walked in with a pinecone instead and placed it on Mrs. Armstrong's desk, "A pineapple..."

Mrs. Armstrong didn't know whether to laugh or chide the tiger boy, "No Max... that is a pinecone..."

Max sighed and lowered his head, "Are you going to keep it?"

Mrs. Armstorng smiled at him, "Yea I think I will, I never had a student who gave me a pinecone as a gift before."

Buster just laughed, "The grocery store sells them…" Buster continued chuckling, "Are you going to give it to your girlfriend?"

"No."

Mrs. Armstrong just smiled at Max while she ignored Buster. He sat there in his own little world with his own imagination running wild.

Fantasy scene Mrs. Armstrong was wearing a red dress and Max was wearing a black suit with a rose in his mouth as they were doing the tango.

He snapped back as Buster got his attention, but Max was thinking the teacher would appreciate these things, and to him… she probably did, she had a rough few last days and didn't really need any more bad news.

Sue Ellen and Fern collectively were happy that they were back in class; they have managed to run off, presumably the heresy lords thought they both died on Terra, but are scouring every square inch of the planet looking for their bodies. But it still worried them both. What if they came to Earth? What if Muffy and Buck get involved in their affairs?

After class Max just waited for everyone to leave he was upset about something, "I need help…"

Mrs. Armstrong was curious, the tiger boy wearing blue jeans and a black long sleeve shirt always needed help adjusting to different situations, "What is it?"

"D.W."

Mrs. Armstrong knew something was up, it was an obscure question but it had to be resolved, she just smiled at him sympathetically, "Are you being bullied by her?"

"She is being rude and mean to me, and I never did anything to her!"

"You do baby-sit her; she thinks that since her parents are gone, she feels that she can get into trouble."

"She kicked me down there, because I ate some cake her father made, but he said I could have the slice!"

As Max and Mrs. Armstrong were chatting Arthur overheard and he walked in, "I am sorry about D.W. she can be a pain at times, you need to get used to it… Unless you want to try and baby-sit the Tibble Twins…"

Mrs. Armstrong was shocked, "They are royal terrors, and I often came home with headaches because of them… I don't think Max is ready for someone like that."

Max was scared, "I got to look after them tonight."

Arthur chuckled, "Good luck I hope you well, survive… I will come over to see if you are ok."

Max lowered his head in sadness, "I can't understand living here… it is too complicated, back home life was so easy..."

He had only been here for a few weeks and was finding it way too hard to adjust. He walked outside with Arthur, and D.W. confronted them both, she was berating them both over something very trivial, "Don't you have your own friends to play with? Because I am very tired of you bothering my friends…"

"I wanted to tell Max that I expect him to take me to the place where Mary Moo Cow is shown so I can be on TV."

"It ain't going to happen," Max argued, "The reason is because you are too bratty, and rude, they will kick you off the show after only one episode" and Max walked away saying nothing more.

Arthur had just smiled at her while D.W. was wide eyed and speechless, Max actually stood up for himself and this was very rare.

But Francine was a completely different ballgame… "Max, why are you sucking up to Mrs. Armstrong?"

Max liked Mrs. Armstrong; many could say he has a crush on her, "Why?"

"Because ever since Sue Ellen and Fern left, you have been giving her apples every day,"

Max blushed a little bit and he walked away without saying anything, he had seen Sue Ellen and Fern talking, both girls smiled at him, Sue Ellen started to talk, "I heard you were giving apples to my mom every day. And what was that thing about giving her a pine cone?"

"I thought it was a pine apple..."

Max just kept on walking to class, he was tired of the stuff his classmates had been saying, he was tired of D.W. nagging him, change was in the air, and his first objective of course was to stop D.W. from nagging all the time. His second was try and ignore his classmates, he didn't care that he was sucking up to the teacher.

After school, Max walked to the Tibble house across the street from Arthur's Max walked into the house and he saw the two hyperactive bear cubs.

"Well here they are," The Tibble's mother stated, she turned to them, "Tommy, Timmy, this is Max, your new babysitter he will be looking after you both as your father and I are going out for a relaxing evening."

The twin's parents left and well got started.

Half an hour later the Tibble's were well too out of control for Max, he had called Arthur over, "I need help I can't handle them!"

They had both done their jobs and the Tibble's managed to tire themselves out in two hours just as their parents came home.

"You both did a good job, thanks."

Max left but there was some more fish to fry as he walked home, and it was the issue pertaining to Mrs. Armstrong, there were several things he could do, and that was…

Write love notes to her…

To Be Continued.


	8. That's Assault Brotha'

The next evening Max had decided to walk to the grocery store, this was a far-out situation that he himself had concocted, he had bought five apples, four oranges, two bananas, two pineapples, and two bunches of grapes and a wicker basket.

When he got home, his mom was watching All My Chickens and his dad was at Mr. Crosswire's; he had went to his room neatly arranged the fruit in the basket he wrapped the basket in clear cellophane and tied a nice bow to close it. The extra pineapple was a spare to put on her desk at a later date.

Max then started writing some love notes on his own when he was reading some books on love poems, he didn't want any help from his classmates or anyone he knew because they would most likely ask him 'who are the notes for.'

These notes were precious as he wrote them; the next day he walked down to the classroom and put the notes and the fruit basket on the Mrs. Armstrong's desk unsigned of course. When Mrs. Armstrong got to the desk, she had read the notes and figured only one person would write them… or was dumb enough to… Buster Baxter, she looked at Buster, "Buster, can you _please_ stop writing love notes to me? Or you won't be going on the field trip this afternoon."

Mrs. Armstrong took notice to the fruit basket.

"I didn't give you that!" Buster blushed, "And I didn't write them."

"You do know if you don't tell the truth, it will incriminate you even further, I remember when the first day I was here I seen you pass a note saying 'Mrs. Armstrong is hot."

Busters face was now beet red, however Max was snickering like crazy trying not to laugh at the poor rabbit boys expense. It was just too funny.

But it was also a good thing as well since Mrs. Armstrong knew other students were chuckling at Buster because of it, Max was safe because he didn't want to be incriminated against for having a crush on a teacher.

At recess, Buster walked up to Max, "Why were you almost laughing?"

"Because you _love_ Mrs. Armstrong?"

Buster was slightly annoyed, "Cut that out; I know I didn't write the notes…"

Max smiled, "Buddy… you probably have a secret crush on her but are afraid to admit it?" He changed the topic to avoid some suspicion, "Is there a girl in class you like?"

Buster fumbled with the answer, "Fern? And you?"

Max _had_ to think of an answer he couldn't say the teacher... No he wasn't going to because it would ruin him and knowing Buster he would tell everybody and due to the severity of the situation Max has going the tiger boy thought Mrs. Armstrong would have him institutionalized for it, so he just said a random girls name, "Muffy?"

Buster chuckled, "Don't get mixed up with her, she is bad news a bit demanding…"

D.W. overheard them talking, "You both really shouldn't be talking about other people, besides I will tell Fern and Muffy… wherever she is that you both _love_ them so much."

Buster sighed as D.W. just couldn't mind her own business, he turned to Max, "Should we go somewhere else to talk?"

D.W. yelled at both as they walked away, "Don't walk away from me when I yell at you!"

Max sighed, he just ignored D.W. and went to see Prunella, he figure that she could know about love, "Prunella, I need help, there is someone I have a crush on, and I want to get them some chocolate, what should I get?"

Prunella smiled, "…Max, who is it? Fern, Sue Ellen, Jenna, Molly, Muffy…" she looked lustily into his blue eyes, "Myself?"

Max fumbled with a response he was kind of stuttering with the answer.

"If you don't tell who you have a crush on, I won't help."

Max needed to get some primo chocolate, he lied again… "Fern…"

Prunella was shocked, she didn't expect Fern to be the girl, "…Ok…"

Max was impatient, "Will you help me or not?"

"Sure, sure…" Prunella commented as she was still a bit shocked with a response.

In the afternoon on the school bus en route to the museum, Max was sitting with the other boys, Binky smiled at him, "Hey Max, somehow I think you have a crush on Mrs. Armstrong, but I dare you to touch her boobs."

"Touch her boobs?" Max asked in shock as he looked at the bulldog boy in some disgust; Binky wasn't bright, "That's assault brotha'…" he paused, and smiled, "Do you double dare me?"

"Yea."

Max walked up to the front of the bus, "Mrs. Armstrong are we almost there, I have to use the rest room."

"We won't be there for about 15 more minutes-" Mrs. Armstrong replied as Max did slip on to her successfully doing the dare, "Are you ok?"

"Yea."

"Return to your seat before you get hurt ok?" She then smiled at Max and added, "I double dare you…"

Max was shocked did she hear him talk about Binky's dare? And he returned to his seat, when Binky handed another dare, he pulled out his sandwich, "I dare you to throw my sandwich at the bus driver."

Max was thinking; he threw the bus at the bus driver and the bus driver lost control and crashed into a truck carrying nuclear waste.

Everyone was exposed to the waste; Mrs. Armstrong was out cold…

They managed to get out of the bus and were sent to the hospital for quick observation but were quickly discharged to their parents urging they were to be sent home, but they seemed to be fine despite the exposure to the nuclear waste.

Arthur looked warm while Muffy felt his forehead, "Wow you are hot!"

Arthur turned around and opened up his hand and blew fire.

Sue Ellen was shocked, "That was cool!" she did look a bit more muscular, she went to a nearby car and lifted it effortlessly, "Whoa, I can't believe I lifted the car." She lifted it over her head no problem.

Francine sighed, "Not really impressive… but how is this I will go and see what time it is at home and come back in a few minutes."

Francine ran almost as fast as the speed of sound and she came back seconds later.

The Brain seemed amazed, he was thinking he was looking at a boulder and had moved it with his mind; it had weighed about 500 pounds.

Buster was amazed, his asthma was catching up with him that he took a deep breath and seemed bloated, he took even more and was well inflating himself, and soon he let the air out, "That really isn't impressive…" he threw out his arm and he outstretched it as if his body were made out of rubber.

Binky sighed, he didn't have anything special but he looked at some common houseflies and oddly enough they went after Muffy she screamed as about 200 houseflies were chasing after her, "Where is Fern?"

"I am right here," Fern replied, but couldn't be seen, she tapped Binky on the shoulder and he jumped like 5 feet in the air and she appeared, "I guess I was invisible or something…"

Max couldn't see a thing… but his senses were extremely high, he musta lost his vision when the truck hit, he felt someone grabbing money from his pocket and grabbed the perpetrators hand, "Binky, stop taking my lunch money!"

George sighed, "Everyone has some special ability…" he walked away looking at Muffy and turned into her, "Who is the real Muffy now?"

Muffy shrieked. "Very funny…" George turned back, "I wonder what special ability I have…"

Mrs. Armstrong talked to the parents, "The children are my students, in a way I am their mother and I won't let you all take them..."

"Christine I think you hit your head a bit too hard when you were out cold, you were unconscious for a few hours," Mr. Read commented.

"Oh..."

"What is my special ability?" Muffy suddenly spontaneously combusted, all what was left of her was her clothes and ashes…

Max looked shocked as Binky looked at him and asked, "Aren't you going to do the dare?"

Max snapped back into reality, "Huh?"

"Oh nevermind…" Binky said as he took the sandwich back; he smiled, and he threw it at the overweight bear man bus driver who looked to have a mean streak, soon the bus driver yelled, "HEY!" Then he grumbled, "I will turn this damn bus around and I will end your precious field trip!"

They had made their way to the museum, and spent their time there for the whole afternoon.

After school Prunella was waiting for Max and they both went to the mall to a store that specifically sold chocolate, Max had bought a $7 box of chocolate, he could smell waft of chocolate that they were so fresh.

Meanwhile Max had a glib expression on his face; he couldn't wait to see the expression on his teachers face when he puts them on her desk. He walked home with Prunella, and hid the chocolates under his bed for the morning.

---

Mrs. Armstrong bought the fruit basket home with her, Mr. Armstrong looked at it curiously, "Where did you get that from?"

Mrs. Armstrong smiled, "Someone left me some love notes and left a fruit basket on my desk…"

Mr. Armstrong chuckled, "Look's like someone has a secret admirer."

"Unfortunately, I think it might be Buster…"

"That is a bad thing I take…"

"Yea, I am starting to think his mom might have abused him physically… despite she well disappeared mysteriously… Days before her disappearance I noticed he had an unsightly bruise on his arm."

That evening Max had to baby-sit D.W. again, this time D.W. was really out of control, she was misbehaving when D.W. locked the door of her room.

"Come out!" Max Yelled.

"No!" D.W. laughed.

Max was out of ideas, he ran downstairs and moments later came back upstairs, "D.W. I got a call from the police station, they say that your parents are dead, they got in a horrific car accident and they need you to identify the bodies."

"Mom? Dad?" D.W. said in shock as she unlocked the door.

"Haha, fooled you!"

D.W. whispered, "(Bleep) you!"

"I am telling…" Max replied, as unluckily for D.W. , Mr. and Mrs. Read had heard her.

And of course she was sent to her room as her parents apologized to him for the trouble.

The next morning Max got up, he was smiling, he could hardly wait to get to school, he had hid the box of chocolate and the pineapple in his knapsack, and walked to school, and he had snuck into the classroom and put the chocolates and the pineapple on Mrs. Armstrong's desk.

When class began, she of course was shocked, someone left some fine chocolates and a pineapple for her, and she wondered whom, she put them in one of the drawers and she smiled, this had made her day like the day before with the fruit basket.

At recess she was mystified she didn't know who put them there, she looked at Mr. Ratburn, "Nigel, you know I am married, you didn't need to give these to me… or the fruit basket."

"I didn't."

She turned to Mr. Marco, "Mr. Marco?"

"Nope."

"Mr. Haney?"

"Not me."

Mrs. Sweetwater looked at her, "ooh, you got a secret admirer, how romantic…"

This wasn't something Mrs. Armstrong expected; to her it just seemed like a silly little crush, she knew one of the students must have done it, who else would it have been?

She went to class, Max was sitting there alone his head was on the desk, she had looked at him, "What's wrong?"

"I have something to say…" Max replied in a guilt ridden voice, she sat across from him and smiled, "I bought you the box of chocolates, the fruit basket and wrote the love notes…"

Mrs. Armstrong of course was shocked.

TBC


	9. Crushed

Mrs. Armstrong was still surprised, "You?"

He lowered his head in shame, "…Yes, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer, I lied to too many people... I… Love you!"

"There isn't anything to be ashamed about I had a crush on one of my teachers when I was younger, those love notes you wrote were very beautiful. Where did you write such beautiful calligraphy?"

Max ignored the question, "But I can't go on keeping it a secret…"

She looked at Max and she could see the sadness in his eyes, the desperation, "You are a good kid, but it wouldn't be right if you were to have a loving relationship with a teacher, I know you saved my life, but you should probably go for someone your own age…" Max had tears welling up in his eyes he knew he was probably going to cry; he couldn't accept the cold harsh truth, however she smiled at him "But I do know of someone who is one of my best friends?"

He was nervous, "Who?"

"Someone named Max Clarkson," He had hugged her she hugged him back and said, "I don't deserve these chocolates, give them to a girl you really like and we will pretend this had never happened."

"But…"

Mrs. Armstrong interrupted him and she spoke softly to the tiger boy whose eyes were filled with tears, "Max, this wouldn't be right, as of right now I know you have a crush on me, I suggest you read '_On a very special Arthur_,' it tells the story of Alan having a crush with someone, I don't want to hurt your feelings…"

Max sighed sadly, he had a deeply inspiring crush on her and he knew people would do anything for love, but he knew this love couldn't be, because she was happily married; if he were to successfully land a relationship with her not many people would be too happy about it because of various lawsuits with teachers that go beyond the student-teacher relationship, "…Ok."

This wasn't the way he wanted things to end but he had to accept it he didn't want to get her in trouble; it was a load off his mind telling her what he was doing but it at the same time upset him because of all the lying he was doing to Buster and Prunella.

Prunella was a girl he had a crush on, but he was too nervous to tell a soul. He figured Mrs. Armstrong would be the best person to tell, "Prunella…"

"What about her?"

"That is the girl I have a crush on."

As he concluded that sentence the bell had rang, "We will have to talk about this during lunch. I don't want to see you become incriminated by your peers."

Max sat down and smiled at her, she was the only person who he could confide in; he was having some problems fitting in at school, he always talked to Mrs. Armstrong, he sort of reminded her of Sue Ellen for some reason...

Mrs. Armstrong was still in class grading some tests when Arthur walked by getting his books and he walked in, "Arthur can I see you for a moment?" He had walked in, with curiosity on his face, "Can you please hang around with Max a bit more? He seems to have problems making friends."

Arthur was still curious.

Mrs. Armstrong was a bit saddened, "He needs friends his own age, and I noticed he is having some problems adjusting here… Where ever he lived before he had never seen snow in his entire life.

"But he… well has emotional problems…" Arthur admitted.

"He just needs someone his own age to hang out with; please can you and George just do something with him?"

Arthur sighed, as they agreed to, the met up with Max, who was a bit nervous of their presence, "So whatcha doing?"

Max was looking at the snow mysteriously, "…Like cold wet sand."

"I see… what do you have planned for D.W.?"

"I will show you…" they both went to the art room, Sue Ellen was there doing some final touches on Max's creation, "An octopus made out of paper Mache."

It was of an aqua green color, "Whoa!" Arthur exclaimed, "You made that?"

George was a bit envious of the creating, "Cool!"

"I had a little help, should we show it to D.W.?"

Arthur looked at it in awe, "I like the black button eyes you gave it…"

Max picked it up, "I used rubber snakes for the arms, to make its arms feel so real," he explained as Arthur and Max left the classroom to show D.W.

"AHHH!" D.W. shrieked and she ran off.

All Arthur and Max did was laugh hysterically, Max concluded by saying, "This brings great justice because I need to stand firm when dealing with her."

"Try the Tibbles?" Arthur suggested. Max and Arthur saw the bear cub twins wreaking havoc down the hallway, "They make D.W. look like a perfect angel."

Max lowered his head in sadness, "Already did and I failed miserably..."

-----------------

Starla, her mother, Muffy and Buck were taken to Terra, with Sue Ellen and Fern's weapons, they had just landed and had walked around the space port, different aliens were selling strange fruits, others were peddling strange religions. As well as not so strange religions

"Learn the science of Scientology!" An older aardvark man wearing a simple uniform yelled, he had continued, "How about the fundamentals of Fundamentalism?" Muffy sighed, she figured this guy wasn't serious; he had continued, "The anarchy of Anarchism? Or the methods of Methodism?"

She turned around, "Now you are just making stuff up."

"How about-…"

"You shut the hell up and step off." Buck said as he started to get annoyed, "I had a long trip and I don't want to hear about how religion is going to better us. We both come from non-religious practicing homes, and you can shove what ever you are pushing up your ass." They both went into a nearby restaurant, it was a cozy little place, "Hey barkeep, give me a shot of whiskey!"

Buck got a shot glass with of some fine whiskey in it, and Muffy just ordered some tomato soup, "I hope those gangsters give up the search."

"They won't…"

"I hope no one minds we are carrying around Sue Ellen and Fern's broken weapons…" Muffy turned to Starla and her mother, "What are your plans now?"

"We will settle here," Mrs. Benneditto stated, "I will see if I could find a job, get Starla enrolled in a school and we will be a happy family.

"It was great knowing you Muffy, I know we both been through a lot together," Starla added sadly as she and her mother had set off to the Dark Mage village.

"I wonder if we will see them again…" Muffy asked curiously.

"Not likely…" Buck replied as the dark mage handed him Fern and Sue Ellen's broken weapons.

One of the handmaidens heard the names 'Fern and Sue Ellen' and walked forward, "Sue Ellen and Fern, you both know where they are?"

Muffy was curious, "Why should we tell you?"

"They are in danger, I-"

Buck stopped her, "No, we are we just got off Earth to get away from some gangsters, we got their weapons and pretty much came with some dark mages; they are back home where they belong."

"Ok, I don't believe you and now is the time to say that you both are under arrest for the murders of two members of the order."

"What?" Muffy shrieked.

She had summoned a short alien with a small build with red skin and oddly shaped eyes, he slapped the cuffs on them both, and he spoke in a strange alien language, loosely translated he said "We will send you to Kubăz."

"Huh?"

The Handmaiden had translated the alien, "You will be going to Kubăz."

"Where?"

"It is a planet where we send the likes of you both to atone for their crimes; it is a dry arid planet, which is a prison planet, you will have members of organized crime and members of heresy lords trying to kill you both."

To Be Continued.


	10. Alone

Muffy and Buck were both transported from the spaceport, they were in custody of the handmaidens, what they didn't know was that Buck had a pistol hidden, he knew when he was there he wasn't going to take any prisoners, neither would Muffy even if they had to get their hands dirty and take out anyone they were both willing to accept anything that was going to go down..

It had taken 30 minutes to be transported and processed on Kubăz and they were both thrown in a jail cell literally.

A pale aardvark guard of average height which was a high ranking member of security walked towards them, "I am Dust, I was told by the law enforcement of Terra about Sue Ellen and Fern, and you both have information about their 'apparent' deaths. We want that information, and if you both don't tell I will have to kill you both."

"How will you get the information?"

He opened his hand and blew dust temporarily blinding them both, "I will get the mafia in here they will break your bones if enraged. Cyrax the Mighty would be delighted to see you both as well…" and he paused, "If he were here."

The pale aardvark man had left and a alien who was a few inches taller came in brandishing a strange looking gun, the alien was speaking English for an odd reason, it was known as 'basic' in the universe, he was a scientist, "So the guards couldn't deal with you huh, we have ways of getting the truth out of you, but you both are going to stay here a while."

------------------------------

Back on Earth, some more heresy lords were looking for Sue Ellen and Fern despite the rumors that they thought they were both dead from the crash, a simple kidnapping basically blown out of proportion, Muffy and Buck were arrested for murder even though they don't have a defense team or and form of law on their side to speak for them.

"I will see what I can do..." Mr. Clarkson stated.

"What?" Mrs. Clarkson replied.

"Your family and mine won't be coming for a few more days; there is a meteor shower on the route between D-34 and Earth."

She had a suggestion, "Let's go for a walk..."

Mr. and Mrs. Clarkson were surely to meet the next few heresy lords; they were both outside enjoying a walk when one had approached them.

A heresy lord looked at them both, he was looking pretty seedy, "You both are under the custody of the Heresy."

"And why is that?" Mr. Clarkson asked.

"Three heresy lords scouting this area were brutally murdered down an alleyway, one guy managed to survive but well he is going to swear out revenge on him when he gets out of the hospital. And another one was tortured to death wrapped in a blanket and thrown off a bridge. A war between a bunch of suits and us is going on we are losing members, and suspect you are working with a guy named Tony; you are just caught in the crossfire." Three more heresy lords had come from the shadows, "We will take you to Kubăz and we will have ways to extract information from you both." He snorted, "I am receiving word one Muffy Crosswire who had links to Tyrannous' death is held there for the apparent murders of those two we are after. She is marked for death."

Tony was driving past them, and heard them, "No, we are going to kill her and Buck, they messed with us for the last time, and you guys for many reasons!" He yelled as he shot two heresy lords dead with a machine gun.

One of the heresy lords did a mind trick, "Keep on driving, you guys never seen anything," and they just kept on going.

Tony was cursing up a storm, he wanted these cultists dead more than anything.

The heresy had taken them to their transport and landed on Kubăz, walking down the steel corridor hearing the screams of prisoners being tortured and killed by the guards, they were thrown into the same cell as Muffy and Buck, all the guard said was, "These guys will stay with the bad guys who think they are the good guys."

Back on Earth when Max got home, he had found the note.

_Kid, your parents are on _Kubăz they are under arrest for the death of our leader _Tyrannous the Mighty_, _don't think about going there or trying to get them out, they will be executed along with Muffy and Buck._

Tears welled up in his eyes, he had ran to the Armstrong house as he was crying, when he got to the house, he knocked on the door, he was sitting on his legs crying and Sue Ellen had answered the door, "H-help me."

"What's wrong?"

He wiped away his tears, "My parents are gone…"

"…Kidnapped." A familiar voice said as he walked from the shadows, it was Moss, Sue Ellen gasped, she thought he died; she looked like she had seen a ghost, "You thought I died?"

"I saw the medic drape a sheet over you."

Moss started to explain, "I faked my own death, I was able to shut everything off, and then bring myself back moments later, but it looks like you've grown up a bit."

The cat girl rolled her eyes, "…Yea…" but her voice quickly turned to anger, "You lied to us! Fern and I quit the order we are not too happy with you despite we are glad you are ok, how could you?"

"Come on Sue Ellen!" Moss explained, "I did it to protect you both, they were going to kill you and Fern if I told them where you both were, so I faked my death in order to throw them off for a while."

"We had to go from planet to planet!" She yelled.

Max yelled "STOP IT!" and further interrupted them both, "But my parents…" he ran inside almost in tears, Mrs. Armstrong was grading some tests, "My parents are gone…"

Mrs. Armstrong now didn't know what to do, to her he seemed so desperate for attention, but at the same time, he was so upset right now she calmed him down, she decided to call the police, Mr. Freeman had come over to talk to Mrs. Armstrong, "Christine, I feel you should take care of him for a while, he seems so calm when you are with him."

Mrs. Armstrong didn't want that, not because of what happened previously, it was because she was taking care of Sue Ellen, her baby brother Gary, and Tenzin. She wasn't able to take care of another kid, "…I can't; I understand his situation, but I can't take care of another kid, I have enough going on, I have a family member in the hospital, and I have other things to take care of," Max lowered his head sadly, but Mrs. Armstrong continued to speak, "But I can find someone who will look after him for the time being, I can let him stay here for a few hours so he can have something to eat."

"My mom and dads side is coming in a few days..." Max stated.

"You need someone to look after you now," Mrs. Armstrong explained, "I can't let you be home by yourself for a few days..."

Max sighed, he knew Mrs. Armstrong was looking out for him.

------------------------------

At Arthur's house, D.W. was waiting impatiently for Max, "Where is he?"

Mrs. Read sighed, "Dora Winifred, you need to understand that he has feelings too."

All of a sudden the phone had rang, Mrs. Read had picked it up, it was Mrs. Armstrong, "Hello? I see, Max won't be able to come tonight," Mrs. Read continued talking and she had hung up the phone, she had gone face to face with D.W. "Max won't be coming to baby-sit you tonight, his parents were kidnapped, and he is really upset."

Mrs. Read left the room, and D.W. sighed, "Rats! I wanted him to take me to the studio, good thing there is one of those major teachers meeting days on Monday."

---------------------------------

Moss had walked to his house with Sue Ellen, "I heard what had happened; I heard that you were being looked after by some faeries. I am going to try and get everyone back…"

"Everyone?" Sue Ellen asked as she somehow knew there was more.

"Buck and Muffy are arrested as well."

Sue Ellen looked nervous, "I know it will make me look bad but Fern and I will pass, we had enough excitement for a few days… besides my mother grounded me…"

Moss' house was a few doors down, he had sighed, "Alanis isn't too happy with me right now."

"The faking of your death thing… She should be thrilled."

They both walked back inside, Mrs. Armstrong summoned the cat girl and she walked towards her, "Sue Ellen, can you please do something with Max like play a board game?"

"…Fine," and she walked inside this really wasn't something she wanted to do with him, they didn't have anything in common.

"Uhm… want to play checkers? Max asked.

"I don't really like checkers."

Max sighed with boredom he just laid flat on his back, "I wish Arthur and George were here..."

"I did call them and they were able to come..." Mrs. Armstrong explained as she hung up the phone.

Within moments they both had come, including D.W., Arthur turned to her, "D.W. no, you aren't coming, she specifically said, myself and George only!"

Mrs. Read took D.W. back to the car as she leered at Max again.

"How's it going?" George asked curiously noting how bored Max was.

"Not good..."

"I know how you feel; Muffy is gone," Arthur commented sadly, "I hate to see her go despite how much of a clothes shopper she is..."

Sue Ellen interrupted the conversation, "Well since you are all here, what are you all afraid of?"

Max looked at her with some sadness in his eyes when Mrs. Armstrong overheard then, "I don't know if that would be a good question especially with the situation Max has on his hands."

To Be Continued.


	11. The Peepee soaked Heckhole

A few hours later Max sighed as he ate dinner, "What is going to happen to me?"

Mrs. Armstrong looked at him sympathetically, "I would love to take care of you, but I can't right now, I do know someone who may be interested," Max didn't want to leave the care of Mrs. Armstrong, she had reminded him of his own mother, and he didn't want to live with a complete stranger, "The Crosswires," she said out of the blue as everyone didn't expect that.

Max didn't expect nor wanted to live temporarily with Muffy's parents, all he knew was that they were a bunch of rich snobs, and he knew many people never spoke highly of them. He didn't really want to live with them for the time being, but they were the only ones.

Sue Ellen swallowed nervously, "If you feel uncomfortable, you can spend the night here."

And that was what he did, Mrs. Armstrong checked on him; he was calm, cool and collected didn't have any problems sleeping whatsoever.

The next day after school Max got the rest of his clothes from his house, and Mrs. Armstrong drove him to the mansion, she had made some small talk, "I know how you feel…"

"No you don't my life has always been a mess, I haven't been able to adjust to life on different planets, I didn't make many friends…"

"Yea you are upset that you lost people dear to you, I can feel it; so if you need someone to talk to I am always there for you," She said as she pulled in front of the imposing mansion.

They had both got out; Max was a bit intimidated by the structure. Bailey had led him inside the mansion. Max was nervous but Mrs. Armstrong walked towards the newly fixed up doors with him.

--------------------

On Kubăz Muffy was starving for food her clothes were dirty, Buck and Reno were planning on how to escape, Reno wasn't as confident, "We will most likely be killed, the heresy is starting to turn soft after Cyrax has gotten in charge…"

Mrs., Clarkson looked dreadful, but Muffy was starving and was having trouble stomaching the strange food that she had got sick a few times. She had looked after Muffy as the monkey girl needed something to soothe her stomach.

Buck continued to plan an escape, "Look, all we do is start a prison riot, kill some guards take their weapons, and kill anyone who gets in our way."

"We have 45 minutes to do so." Reno argued.

A guard was walking down the hallway with an imposing aardvark man wearing black and yellow armor, it was Cyrax the Mighty, he had turned to the guard, "Go," and turned to the occupants of the jail cell, "It seems to me that you all have done something that affects me."

Buck sighed, "You are pretty stupid for thinking we killed them which we didn't."

"SILENCE!" He yelled as he gripped his hand choking the life out of him.

"Let him go!" Muffy yelled, "If it is me who you want I will train with you!"

"Forget it, Tyrannous made the same mistake… I won't; you are all lucky I don't destroy you all now; you ruined my plans, you belong in this… this urine soaked hell hole… If you were out I will show you all true pain and suffering!"

The warden had come in wearing black he was a few inches shorter than Cyrax, with a blood stained scythe in his hand, it had seemed that he had just executed someone, "We object the term urine soaked hell hole when you could have said 'pee-pee soaked heck hole' I don't go to Shadonia and say how much of a crap hole your planet of residence is with its ancient temples and catacombs."

They had both walked out onto the dusty plains of the extremely arid planet, "They are slated for execution."

"NO, they are mine!" Cyrax yelled crazily, "I will send all heresy lords here and release those under arrest here, I will train that girl, and I will get my revenge… I will destroy them all!"

Back in the cell they were let out for an hour, Buck started, "Ok, we have 15 minutes, I still have my pistol, Reno has his fists and cat like agility, Maria and Muffy, and you both need to find weapons, or kill some guards or... well do something, start fights."

They were both close together when sent out to the arid fields, Buck and Reno had started to pick fights, and soon everyone was fighting, Buck pulled out his gun and started shooting.

"He has a gun!" one of the guards yelled as inmates and guards were shot at. Reno tackled him and took the guards weapon. It was a strange shock stick, he hit the guard with it and he was knocked unconscious.

Reno protected Buck as he took out a few more guards, there were enough weapons even some strange looking pistols, those would prove to be more useful, they could take enemies out quickly. They picked up the pistols and started shooting until they got to the landing pad.

As they had walked down the corridor, guards had followed as Reno and Buck shot them dead, and Maria and Muffy shot the corridor guards in fear.

This proved to be a good offensive, until when they had got to a ship that was leaving, the warden and Cyrax were still standing there, "YOU!" he yelled as he pulled out his weapon and a blood red beam appeared from the hilt, "Join me and I will forget about Sue Ellen and Fern."

The warden pulled out the scythe, "Not your jurisdiction, I will deal with them, we don't condone the actions of the heresy as several members of your precious cult are going to be executed today…"

And about 20 guards had appeared fully armed to the teeth. They all dropped their weapons and were sent back to their cells.

"Great plan," Reno commented sarcastically.

Buck seemed satisfied, "We killed some guards and inmates."

"There are literally thousands of guards here because of this, we are marked, and we could get attacked by inmates at any time, some of what we killed were prison gang members, members of the heresy and other high profile offenders, to them this is an act of war, an insult. We need to go covert or it is going to be worse."

"Well we could kill a guard once he walks by here, take his uniform one of us dresses up like him and I tell the guard at the gate that I am taking you to a different prison."

"...and you actually expect that to work, it is just like a prison riot and you expect to walk out the front door unscathed, very asinine." Mr. Clarkson joked.

"What do you have planned?" Buck asked curiously.

"I use Muffy and she slips some rat poison in a few of the guard's drinks, then we take the uniforms and walk out..." Reno explained but was interrupted.

"That won't work, we would dress up like them, make up a lie that we are all dead in a jail cell because Muffy snapped and killed us, and we are to take her off planet to be institutionalized."

Muffy sighed, "That is a really dumb plan, how about I try sweet talking the guard to letting us go?"

"And get killed by other inmates?" Reno asked curiously; it was a dumb idea, "Seriously, there are people here who will kill someone who is weak or defenseless, and you my friend are both."

Muffy shot him a dirty look.

"I got an idea," Mrs. Clarkson stated.

"Oh god..." Buck commented knowing it was going to be worse.

"Since I am young, 28 years old; I could do a strip tease for the guards and..."

"YEA!" Buck exclaimed as he secretly wanted her to do that.

Reno was annoyed, "My wife is not going to do that, especially here, because for one reason and one reason only, I don't want anyone here to rape her or kill her over something stupid, and besides there won't be any nudity. And no offence you and Muffy are vulnerable, one wrong move Muffy could get hurt or killed and you could get raped."

"How about sex?"

"Nope?"

"How about a story where Mrs. Read cheats on Mr. Read with Carlos?" Buck joked.

"We'll see..." Reno stated, "We already have one where Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn have a thing going on."

TBC


	12. Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub

Mr. Read was set to go out for the day, "Jane, I will be going camping with Mr. Ratburn for part of my survival course."

"Ok, we will see you in a day…" Mrs. Read replied as she saw Mr. Ratburn waiting for him."

Mr. Read boarded Mr. Ratburns car and they had driven off to the woods, it was starting to get cold outside, and there was some snow, Mr. Read was cooking on a camp stove, when Ratburn poked his head out of the tent; "Aren't you a little cold?"

The cold air bit at Mr. Reads nose, "A little bit, but dinner is almost ready."

He continued cooking until it was complete, and joined Mr. Ratburn in the tent, they were eating dinner and making love, Mr. Read chuckled, "Hehe, reminds me of Bareback Mountain."

"Our love will remain a secret; we don't want anyone to know until the time is right…"

---------------

Meanwhile, Max was getting used to his situation, he for one didn't want to live here, he wanted to stay with his teacher, his friend, the one he had a crush on, and he was close to her more than the Crosswires. He had sat in one of the extra bedrooms thinking as Mrs. Armstrong was downstairs having coffee with the Crosswires. Mrs. Armstrong was being nice to have coffee with them, despite the fact that she didn't want to because she didn't get along with Ed that well.

She gave some information, "Don't talk to Max about his parents; he will get upset about it."

"Will do," Mr. Crosswire replied as he really wasn't caring.

"Promise me, I already have three kids to take care of, if he comes to school even more upset about you are treating him badly, I will tell you bluntly how Muffy is doing in class… and it is not good."

Mrs. Armstrong finished her coffee and left but she felt some tugging on her legs, it was Max, he had his arms wrapped around her legs. She sighed... he couldn't let go, he was now almost crying, "Don't go..."

She smiled at him, "But I have to, I will see you in school tomorrow."

* * *

Louis had his arm bandaged up, he was talking to Giorgio, "I am going to kill him, I will spill his blood, and we will see who gets the last laugh."

Giorgio was chuckling, "Ok, I will be at your funeral then."

Louis wasn't listening, "I will kill him, I will fight him to the death, I don't know who he is and I don't know why he attacked me for working with those strange guys, but I will get my revenge, even if it means being put in the hospital again."

Giorgio sighed as his friend wasn't caring about the consequences, "Look get some rest and I will see you in the morning."

"I've hardly gotten any sleep, once I am discharged from here; we are going to look for him and beat him senseless."

Giorgio sighed, "You are very lucky to be alive, if he hadn't seen me, he could have killed you," In a few short moments Tony, Sal, and Sonny walked in all wearing their fine Italian suits with carnations, "My brothers Tony, Sal and Sonny."

Tony started to speak, "I understand you got hit by the cultists, if you want to place a hit on him, it is $500 up front."

"I will pass, and fight him when we meet again."

Tony smiled surprisingly, "You got balls kid, I like that. I've been trying to rub out someone named Muffy for a while and she is more troublesome, perhaps if we can mend things with the Crosswire family, then we can have the funding to extort the Mayor…"

Sal chuckled, "Good luck… just because Mr. Crosswire has lots of money doesn't mean he will help us, besides, we got a kidnapping to think about."

------------------------------------------

The next day Arthur and his parents had gone to the imposing Crosswire mansion Max was being pretty shy, he didn't really come down until 15 minutes after they had arrived, he really didn't want to talk to him, but Bailey was waiting at the door for him to come out.

The reason was that he just didn't want to and that D.W. was there, she would be rude to him and he didn't want to deal with her right now.

Arthur had talked to him, "I am sorry for what happened, since the forth grade I seen it happen, James… he seemed happy to be reunited with his parents."

His voice was quiet, "He was able to do something… I am not able to I am so helpless right now."

Arthur stopped him from saying another word, "No you aren't Mrs. Armstrong speaks very highly of you as does everyone else…"

"I am… I been here for a night, it isn't the same compared to being at home, I am not used to living the same life as Muffy, and she is rich."

"She's been through it all and back, I wouldn't want to say you would be; but the problem is that she is on the run right now, if anyone from the mafia ever shows up… try to make sure that her parents are safe, it would destroy her to see that something happened to them."

Max lowered his head, "But my parents are arrested and sent to a strange planet, I want them back… I am powerless to do something…" he whispered into Arthur's ear, "I wanted to stay at Sue Ellen's."

Arthur had a question that put Max on the spot; it wasn't a good one to ask at this time, "Max, do you have a crush on Mrs. Armstrong?"

Max stumbled with the answer, "What? Me? No."

Arthur was starting to get a bit blunt with him, "I think you do…"

Max was shocked by the aardvark boy's accusation, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"The love notes? The apples? The fruit basket? Buster would never write anything like that, he would probably write 'I think you are hot' to Mrs. Armstrong."

Max was a bit annoyed with him; he had some good reason to be, "What is wrong with a student having a little crush on the teacher?"

"Just answer me this, did you write the love notes?"

Max didn't know what to do would Arthur tell everyone that Max had a crush on Mrs. Armstrong, this wouldn't sit well with both Sue Ellen and himself he didn't really trust Arthur but to himself he seemed ok, he lied to save his skin, "…No."

"…I believe you," he replied nervously, "I personally think it was Binky or Buster who wrote them."

Max sighed sadly as he covered his eyes, he didn't want anyone to see him cry; he had decided to swallow his sadness.

He had waited there while D.W. was ordered to sit with her parents until they left, D.W. just glared at him, because she had her heart set on going to the studios where Mary Moo Cow was filmed.

This was it he was sick and tired of D.W. berating him all the time, he wanted to finally do something and this was the time for some change, he was tired of being pushed around, and if she wanted to go and see Mary Moo Cow, Monday would be the day. He needed something because he knew he would get upset with D.W. and would probably hit her. No he would definitely hit her.

He had decided to go to Arthur's house, it was a short walk to get there from Muffy's; when he got there, and Arthur was sitting outside while D.W. was at the Tibble's

"Is she here?" Max asked nervously.

Arthur smiled at him, "No, she is at the Tibble's why?"

"I am tired of her always bossing me around!" Max whined, "Doesn't she have consideration for other people?"

"No, she's been like that ever since she was four years old."

"If she wants me to be considerate to her then I will help her with her dream..."

* * *

After The Read family came home, Mr. Read had went out to Mr. Ratburn as he was waiting for the use of the hot tub, soon they were in the buff; and were enjoying the bubbles until Mrs. Read knocked on the door, finding it unlocked she had found them both in the hot tub naked, "David?"

"This isn't what you think Jane," Mr. Read replied defensively, "We are doing a play called 'Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub.' It is a comedy for the Elwood City Cultural Society. Remember those two old Muppets from Sesame Street who complain about everything? Then laugh? We are doing the play similar to that."

Surprisingly Mrs. Read bought the story, "Ok, I believe you but stop being so secretive…" and Mrs. Read had left.

--------------------------------------

Buck and company had another plan, they had some time to go out of the cells for a little bit, and Muffy had seen some of the swords, reflecting on when she was in the fourth grade, "A little bit of last year…"

Mrs. Clarkson smiled as she grabbed one, "They use these for mock sword fights for inmates," As they were striking metal to metal, steel has no emotions, "Standard Kutai dueling swords with a leather grip handle…"

A group of inmates surrounded them, a lead alien speaking a strange language.

An old snobbish bear man looked at him, "He doesn't like you… I don't like you either so you just watch yourself…"

Muffy and Maria had swords ready, vivid memories of fighting with these weapons of doom ran through their minds.

"You will be dead!"

Maria struck him down with the sword and soon they were taking out inmates left, right and center.

One inmate chasing at them with a pointed kendo stick tried stabbing them but they cut it in half.

Soon the guards had come, inmates were dead, Muffy neutralizing them by cutting them and Maria dealing the deathblow though Muffy had some good shots causing some inmates to bleed to death. About 15 minutes of fighting, about 50 inmates and 20 guards were dead, Muffy and Maria were killing now in self defense. But were knocked unconscious with use of shock sticks by some guards.

They were sent back to their cells; Reno and Buck were waiting for them they regained consciousness.

"So?" Buck asked.

"We killed some inmates," Muffy explained.

"Got sent back to the cell…" Reno stated as he looked at his wife, "Maria, I know that wasn't the best plan."

"How was your plan?"

"Didn't work, I tried seeing if some uniforms were being used so we would take them, escort you both out of here and we kick the pilots off the shuttle, and make our way to safety.

---

Monday had come quickly, Max had stormed up to Arthur's house, he knocked on the door, and Arthur answered, "Where is D.W. I am going to look after her."

Arthur didn't expect this, "Sure…" he had called D.W. and she came downstairs with a glint in her eyes and a smile on her face.

She walked outside, "Where are we going?"

All Max had said was, "To see Mary Moo Cow."

To Be Continued.


	13. Shattered Dreams

D.W. and Max started walking, "How long will it take?"

"It will probably be a few hours walking…"

D.W. sighed, and she jumped on Max's back expecting him to give her a piggy back all the way there, it was a bit too far for him to carry her, "Carry me!"

Max sighed, she was a bit heavy for him, he secretly wanted to dump her off somewhere, take a taxi and leave her there, but he would get in so much trouble for that it wouldn't be funny, he forced her off and she landed on some grass, "Forget it about me carrying you, you are walking." and they continued walking on the warm early spring day.

As they walked down the streets and the avenues, they had seemed not to get any closer; it was a very long walk. Max had spotted a gold colored moped, the keys were in the ignition, he was going to regret this, this was considered grand theft auto. This was the 'golden' ticket to getting to the studios quicker.

They both boarded the moped nervously and put on their helmets despite D.W.'s not fitting too well, Max turned the key and it had started, he started driving it. But was having problems straitening it up.

He stepped on the gas and away he went at about the top speed of 65 MPH. The studios were an estimated 10 blocks away right now, but now faced with another problem which was Mr. Freeman the police chief, he had gotten a report of a stolen moped. When he had seen it he had turned the sirens, and yelled into the megaphone, "Pull over!"

Max was shocked; he didn't know where to pull over or continue to drive.

Another police car joined the chase, "This is Ryder joining the low speed pursuit on Fake Street."

A few more police cars had joined in the low speed chase, D.W. was yelling at Max, "Can't this thing go any faster?"

"No it's a moped what do you expect?"

Max was at full speed, he had seen a makeshift ramp as construction crews were working on the road, he had taken the opportunity a risky opportunity he was thinking the jump would go wrong and they would both be critically injured, but he didn't care he wanted to get away from the heat so he had put the petal to the metal and managed to jump the ramp as D.W. was screaming in horror as he held on to Max tightly.

They were literally 15 to 20 feet in the air, onlookers looked on in shock. They landed 10 to 15 feet away from the ramp unbelievably it was a perfect landing.

The police cars however avoided the ramp and caused themselves an accident as they bumped into each other, Davenport was laughing at them hysterically, "If you guys can't arrest a kid in a low speed chase on a moped then there sure as hell is something wrong."

Freeman opened the door of his cruiser, "Hey Davenport, why don't you just shut the hell up and see if you can do better."

"I got things to do, like…"

"See how much grits you can eat?" Freeman asked, "Or how many pork rinds you can eat?"

As the police were laughing at the former county commissioner, the police radio was acting up, "Calling all units, calling all units, reports of a drive by shooting has occurred at the Crosswire mansion."

Freeman turned around, "Ok people, half of us need to go and stop those joy riders, and the other have need to go to the Crosswire mansion, I will be going to the mansion to examine everything, Ryder, you keep on the joy riders."

The police cars moved out, and half went back on Max and D.W. who were now about four blocks away. They were running this moped to the ground as they were trying to go as fast as they could, when they had arrived at the studios Max and D.W. came walking in.

This was it, the literal moment of truth, despite the cops following Max and D.W. as they both ran into the studios they had seen 'Mary'; the head part of her costume was off and she was smoking a cigarette. She didn't seem very nice, "What do you want?"

"I want to see Mary Moo Cow."

"No autographs!"

"But I want to be one of the kids on the show."

"No! Get out before I call security! I got a show to do, not talk to some bratty kid," She yelled as D.W. wasn't impressed.

They both walked outside, D.W. was upset, Max started to talk to her, "I know your upset she shouldn't have yelled at you."

She was crying, "Who asked you?"

"She snubbed you, she was rude to you, and I didn't really know you had feelings either until this moment..."

"…My dreams are crushed."

The police had shown up. The game was over they were busted.

Max was speechless; he was literally shocked he didn't know what to do, he was too afraid to run. On top of that he thought that he was going to die on the spot.

Ryder had looked at them, he had a gruff expression on his face, the bear man wasn't happy, "You both are in some serious trouble."

Max swallowed nervously as they were both put in a police cruiser and driven back to the Crosswire mansion, but he didn't know what had happened while he was gone... and it wasn't a good thing...

To Be Continued.


	14. Busted

Mr. and Mrs. Crosswire were shaken from the whole experience, crazed Sicilians were shooting up the place now and then, and this had got to stop. They thought they were safe, the Benneditto's were put away for good, but stranger things had happened.

Ryder had shown up, he let Max out of his cruiser; Freeman was surprised, "You found him? Why is he getting out here?"

"I let him out, he had said his parents are gone, and he is temporarily living here," Ryder explained as he wrote something on his notepad.

Max was shocked seeing what destruction was left, he hadn't said anything he was more shocked than upset over this, and he was oblivious to what happened.

Mr. Freeman was confused, "This doesn't make sense, some crazed Sicilians shot up the place, and this kid is under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Crosswire?"

"Yes!"

"Ryder leave us, I want to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Crosswire." Freeman replied as the other police officer left, he had got into his car and drove D.W. home.

"Mr. and Mrs. Crosswire Max is under your care, the owner of the moped isn't going to press charges, but I certainly hope you are going to punish him for what he did."

Mr. Crosswire lowered his head he looked like he was going to cry… cry of humiliation "I can't…"

"Why?"

"He lost his parents… Muffy is gone off to some strange place; she isn't doing well in school…" Mr. Crosswire explained, as he looked at Max who pretty much was in shock.

"Suit yourself, like if he were my kid I would probably punish him..." Freeman replied as he got into his police car and drove off.

Mr. Crosswire turned to Max, "Be thankful that he didn't press charges, or suggest that I get you put in juvie."

Max sighed as he was brought back to reality he knew he was safe but didn't care much about Mr. Crosswire, "I am so sorry for what happened, don't tell my parents!"

"I won't…"

Moments later Mr. and Mrs. Read were shocked to see D.W. coming home in a police car.

"See Pal, I knew someday D.W. would be in the back of a patrol car."

"_D.W. probably stole a toy." _Pal replied but it came out as barking.

The police officer took D.W. inside, "Mr. and Mrs. Read, there was a certain situation that happened today. You let Max in D.W.'s care?"

Mr. Read started to explain, "Yes, he is D.W.'s baby sitter."

"He stole a moped, and was evading police," the officer explained.

Mrs. Read sighed, "His parents are gone. Please give him a break; I know he is probably doing things that are reckless."

He wanted to tell him what he thought but it was best to close this case, "Anyways, D.W. is back safe and sound."

The police officer had left, and D.W. smiled at her parents, "Is Max going to baby-sit me tonight?"

Mrs. Read looked at her, D.W. never usually liked him, but it was strange why she asked if he could come, "We will have to see."

That evening Max was over to baby-sit D.W. again; he wasn't in the mood of talking, what happened when he was put in police custody was the worst experience of his life.

This wasn't like him, they would both always argue over something or another, but D.W. was still upset because of what happened at the studios today. She didn't know whether to watch the show again or not.

This was the quietist they both ever been all night, Arthur was over at Sue Ellen's studying, Max insisted on doing his work elsewhere instead of at the Crosswire's, the place was a crime scene. He hadn't talked to her at all, it was eerie, and he was still shocked seeing the mansion shot up.

It had been like this until Mr. and Mrs. Read came home, D.W. and Max hadn't talked for hours.

The next day at school was worse; Max was embarrassed because of what happened.

Binky came up to him, he had seen the jump, "That was so awesome! Mr. Kane took a picture of it."

He had presented the news story, Max flew in mid-air on the moped; however he ignored him and he went into the classroom, Mrs. Armstrong was there, "How was it this weekend? I heard you had some good adventure."

"Please… this was the worse weekend of my life, I almost was sent to juvie, I had to crush the hopes and dreams of a little girl… and I couldn't even summon up the courage to give those chocolates to Prunella…"

Max had sat in his chair, as Mrs. Armstrong smiled at him faintly; he personally wanted to stay at her house compared to the Crosswires.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Armstrong asked.

Max sighed sadly, "I just want my parents to come back. My dads and moms side hadn't arrived yet!"

"It will take a little while longer..."

"But how long will it take?"

"Depends on where they are they are probably working as fast as they can to see if they can get here before something terrible happens."

"I hope so because I miss them..."

----

Back on the arid prison planet, Buck started the plan, the guard opened the cell door for brining in what meager rations they are supposed to give the inmates, as Buck looked over a gang member looked at Buck and company and pretended to slice his neck with his hand, which was most likely a death threat.

Buck pulled the guard in and snapped his neck, he took the uniform and changed into it, "A bit small but it'll have to do."

They walked down the hallway passing guard after guard; one guard had stopped them, "Where are you taking them?"

"I am taking them to the prison of uh... Exodus."

"Doom Prison, you are sending them out of all places to Doom Prison? Man the warden is sick minded for sending them there…"

"What is wrong with the warden's choice?" Buck asked, "Are you questioning his authority? He will probably fire you if you question him… or myself, I happen to be a security guard of the 1st brigade."

"Ok, ok, I get your point," The masked guard replied, then got back talking about the prison, "It is old, they are sure to die of ways one has never heard of for hundreds of years, like being hung, or drawn and quartered. Anyways good luck, be sure to watch out for the girl, she can be trouble, and she's been getting sick lately."

Buck had escorted the Clarkson's and Muffy down the cold steel lined hallway and walked out of the prison towards the landing pad.

To Be Continued


	15. The Confrontation

Buck and Company had walked towards the landing pad, a guard stopped them he looked like he was wearing a high ranking uniform of the military, the aardvark man looked at Buck and company through and through, "Halt," he had inspected them much more close up, Muffy looked bony, her skin was covered with dirt and there were bags under her eyes, she was still sick with some sort of food borne illness, Buck, Reno and Maria looked hungry, they had given the food to Muffy, they had soon stopped because it was the food making her sick, he started to talk, "Where are you taking these prisoners?"

Buck had lied, he hoped this was going to work, "The warden wants them transported off of this planet and sent to solitary confinement on Exodus for the riot that happened."

"I see, Doom Prison, they will have a _hell_ of a time there, using 18th century Earthling tactics of torture, my regards to the warden, and good riddance to some bad rubbish," The guard surprisingly let them through and they had boarded the ship.

Cyrax and the warden ran out as the transport had closed its doors, "STOP THEM!" Cyrax yelled, "GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT!" Cyrax was really angry, he was throwing containers around, and he destroying stuff, "I will kill them!"

The Warden was angry too, "They are your problem now, if you attack me your precious heresy will be executed instantly we have shock collars wrapped around their necks and you kill me, it sends an alert to the guard under me to flip the switch and 10000 volts will go through your cult…"

Cyrax turned around and sliced the warden's head off. He had said nothing and went back to Shadonia. Meanwhile hundreds of heresy lords were electrocuted.

--------------------

"We are almost home," Reno said happily as he was flying the transport, he flew the transport as fast as he could and he had landed it at D-34.

"We need some clothes!" Muffy exclaimed as she looked at her dingy colored clothes that had rips in them.

Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "Food is more important, you've been sick for the past few days... In second thought you do need some medical attention, you were sick like everyday in the jail cell and I fear without proper treatment you may get worse..."

Muffy was awful looking, the pain she had endured, the strange alien threats she contended with, she was starving as she lost a considerable amount of weight the food was sometimes making her sick it had seemed that she had lost about 15 to 20 pounds, she knew very well there were going to be severe consequences. She looked like she couldn't stomach any food due to the weight loss; it would be a problem that would stick to her for a few days.

They had escorted her to a doctor's office, a green alien with four arms and four eyes looked at them from behind the desk, "Goo-goo gajub..."

Muffy and Buck didn't know what the alien said.

"She said 'how may I help you?'" Reno stated and talked to her, he turned back to Muffy, "Ok, you can go in."

The doctor looked at her, a red skinned alien who looked almost like Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama looked at them, Muffy was afraid that she would get her fingers sliced off by the doctor, in a thick voice he spoke, "How may I help you?"

Mrs. Clarkson offered her explanation, "She has been sick for the past few days."

The doctor had checked her tempurature, "She has caught a moderate case of food poisoning, be sure to give her some fluids, I will provide the anti-biotic."

Muffy had looked at the oversized pill that the doctor had given her, "Uh no..."

"You need to swallow it."

"That thing is as big as a quarter, I'll choke!"

"It'll dissolve, my young friend," The doctor replied.

Muffy soon took the pill and she had swallowed it.

"Be sure she has a good nights rest, there is a hotel nearby, if you are planning on traveling, don't! There is a meteor shower along the Orion Route towards Alpha Centauri and Earth."

They had left and went to a nearby hotel; Carson the older tiger man had seen his flesh and blood, "Son?"

It was Mr. Clarkson's father, "What are you doing here?"

"Some bad things have happened..." Reno replied sadly, as he looked at Muffy who was all drugged up, "She has been sick for the past few days..."

"I see where are you all headed?"

"Back to Earth, I know you guys are going there as well..."

Mr. Clarkson's mother looked at Reno, "Thank Sue Ellen and Fern for helping us leave Tigris."

"I guess some formal introductions are in order," he turned to Buck, "This is Buck and Muffy, both from Earth, they were accused of killing Fern and Sue Ellen along with us and we were both in trouble because of Tyrannous' death despite that we weren't even there."

"I am going to get a suite so Muffy can get some rest," Mrs. Clarkson stated as she went to front desk.

In a few minutes she and Buck had escorted Muffy to a room several floors up from the lobby, and Mrs. .Clarkson came back down as Buck stayed to keep an eye on Muffy.

"We need new clothes..." Mrs. Clarkson stated as she looked at her black shirt and blue jeans, and Mr. Clarkson's blue button down shirt and black Dockers their clothes were covered in filth.

After an hour of clothes shopping, they had managed to purchase some new clothes, all white, Mrs. Clarkson's mother looked at her, she was wearing a nice casual outfit, "They will get dirty in an hour..."

Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "Mom..."

"Remember when you were younger and you had pasta for the first time? It was on you more than in your mouth."

Mrs. Clarkson's face turned red with embarrassment, "Reno is wearing a suit, I just wanted something refreshingly simple, while Buck is wearing a black button down shirt and jeans."

Buck delivered Muffy the clothes, he left the room and she changed, she was wearing all white, and she seemed to enjoy the clothes they looked fashionable on her after she had changed she had fallen asleep.

The next day Muffy and company had gone home the meteor shower had passed, not much had changed, it was mid-day, and everyone should have been in school.

At the classroom, Mrs. Armstrong saw how upset Max was; it was the afternoon, "Max, I can give you a ride home if you like."

He looked at the tile flooring, "Sure…"

They had boarded the minivan Max was riding shotgun while Sue Ellen sat in the back seat, this was far from magical, "I know a lot of bad things had happened in a few days…"

Max sighed sadly, "I don't know what to do; Mr. Crosswire bailed me out," As they had drove down the street past his house, Max turned wide eyed, "My parents! Their family?"

Mrs. Armstrong pulled into the driveway, and Max got out, "What happened?"

"Max!" Mr. Clarkson exclaimed as the tiger boy hugged him.

"Grandma, grandpa!" Max yelled happily.

Max's grandfather was smoking a cigar... a Cuban when Mr. Clarkson saw him, "You do know those are illegal here..."

"Mr. Crosswire gave it to me..." Reno smiled glibly, "I told him I don't smoke, but my father likes the finer things in life..."

Mrs. Armstrong saw that Reno and Maria's parents were only about 65 years old, and Reno and Maria were about 28-29, she walked up to them, she went to Reno's parents, "You and your wife are about 65 I take..."

"Yea," the elderly tiger man asked, "We been married for about 33 years, on Tigris it is common to marry from 20-35, due to good fertility we were both blessed, to having a healthy son my wife gave birth to Reno when she was about 35 years old."

Mrs. Armstrong turned to Maria's parents, her mother talked, "Same here, we were blessed with a healthy daughter, though her father and I were about 37 years old when I gave birth to her."

"I am planning a lesson for class when everything clears up it would be interesting to see what Max's grandparent's has to say about her life and her experiences..."

"I'd be honored to speak in front of your class," Maria's mother replied happily.

Max swallowed nervously as she pinched his cheek, "Grandma... please I am not a little kid anymore, why don't you bother Amy?"

She smiled at him, "Because I hadn't seen you in a long time..."

"Where is Muffy?" Mrs. Armstrong asked.

"If you are looking for Muffy… well she is in the tub right now, all she said was, 'No matter how much I will bathe I won't be clean…'

Mrs. Clarkson started to talk, "But we have enraged the heresy lord, he and his members will be here in a few hours, we need to get ready."

It was true Cyrax would get everyone and send them to Elwood City. They only had a few hours before things would turn from bad to worse.

Everyone had met at Buck's warehouse… well anyone who could fight or had a weapon of some sort. Fern had her oak staff with a polished gem at the end of it that the dark mages had given her. Sue Ellen had a slingshot she made on Terra when she was in the strange village.

"This is critical, Pierre and a few of my men had died in the drive by Lazlo luckily survived because he wasn't here, said he was moving to Los Santos with his family," Buck commented, "We have these beings of unbelievable evil after us."

Buck had a few weapons of his own, a golden gun, a few bullets used to shatter the beams of the weapons these heresy lords used, he picked up a strange weapon, "The plasma gun."

The mysterious cat man warned, "Don't take it, it'll malfunction and almost everyone will die of radiation poisoning including the heresy lords."

"What do you suggest?" Rex asked, as Buck disassembled the very advanced weapon, "I mean I worked with these guys."

The mysterious cat man in black and red looked at him he carried his long sword over his shoulder, "WE will end them."

Muffy grumbled as she had a few stones in hand, a sword in casing just in case, "I almost was going to get trained, Tyrannous used mind control on me I dragged Sue Ellen and Fern here because of the mess they had gotten us into."

"We can't fight." Fern commented looking at the oak staff nervously.

"This is called responsibility." Muffy explained, "You got all of us involved and we are going to save your skins."

Sue Ellen had it planned, it was a plan sure to fail, "I will find a few rocks and load the slingshot and shoot them with it."

Fern turned to Sue Ellen, "How asinine…"

Moss had his fists, he also had a brown paper bag in his back pocket, and Reno had his sword ready.

They had all walked down the street towards the park it was an ominous evening, about twenty heresy lords and mercenaries waiting in the park.

Sue Ellen's and Fern's parents were being held captive by four heresy lords, their blades close to the girl's parents necks.

"This ends now," Cyrax yelled angrily as his men were ready.

"Let go of our parents!" Screamed Sue Ellen.

"Join me and I will spare them..." Cyrax sneered.

"Never!"

The heresy lords moved their blades an inch closer to their captive's necks.

"One word about not joining and your parents are dead!"

Tony, Salvatore, Giorgio and Sonny had seen what was going on, armed to the teeth with shotguns, pistols and machine guns, all Tony said was "There!"

The four Bennedittos snuck up behind the four heresy lords, they pulled out their shotguns behind the heads of their enemy and pulled the trigger.

(Graphic death scene censored)

"Those filthy animals are dead!" Tony yelled, "Now to take care of the rest and leave before the police show up!"

With catlike agility, the mysterious cat man had taken out two of his enemies. Sue Ellen shot a rock at one of the heresy lords, this burly heresy lord walked up to her, weapon ready, she was scared found her back against a wall, the mysterious cat man in red and black snuck up behind him. Within moments, blood started pouring out of the heresy lords mouth and he collapsed he was dead; Sue Ellen shrieked and ran home with her parents and Fern's parents.

Fern sighed, "So much for brave Sue Ellen… at least her parents, and my parents are safe."

The Armstrong's, Walter's and Sue Ellen were holed up in the house, Sue Ellen locked the door, "We are safe..."

While the fighting was going on though, Louis saw what was going on from the sidewalk, he got some barbed wire wrapped around a baseball bat, this was the worse plan yet, the heresy lords surrounded Louis and the mysterious cat man, and they met back to back, and had turned around facing each other.

Giorgio looked at him, "You made it, you will someday become a made man…"

To Be Continued.


	16. An Oddball In The Family

Louis and the cat man in red and black started exchanging blows, not with their weapons but with their bare fists, he was flat on his back his knees had buckled under the pain, as one of the heresy tried to kill him, but the cat man… the stronger cat man that is took him out.

Fern was focusing her energy on the staff, she couldn't get it to work as she pointed the weapon at a heresy lord walking towards her, she was thinking 'ice' as she had thought that the gem turned a silver color and a bolt of ice appeared and it had froze the imposing enemy in his place. Moss walked towards it and he had done a solid roundhouse kick shattering the frozen heresy lord into a million pieces.

Fern soon ran off fear of death was getting to her.

As heresy lords were getting shot, with about ten left, came the Bennedittos'

They were all walking from the back of the black car with some Sub-machine guns in hand.

"Oh crap…" Buck commented as he shot one of the heresy lords. This was truly the first time he had noticed them.

"You are a dead man…" Tony yelled he turned to Sonny, Sal, and Giorgio "Help me take care of the cultists."

The Benneditto's shot the heresy lords dead, they had managed to shatter the beam that one of their enemies had in hand and the shards went into the eyes of the cultist, "Ahh!" he screamed as he was blinded by shards of crystal; the mysterious cat man had glided and slit his throat.

There was one left, the man in black and red glared at them, "Cyrax is mine!"

The Benneditto's took a weakened heresy lord and they quickly drove off to Teal County as they heard sirens.

"Muffy, go I don't want to see you die," Buck instructed, as the monkey girl ran home scared.

With one heresy lords remaining, the mysterious cat man slowed down time, he was moving at normal speed while everyone was slowed down, he had struck the invading mercenaries down as there were four, but Cyrax took notice and broke the spell.

Reno, Rex, and the mysterious cat man were fighting, Cyrax couldn't fight three on one, and Moss joined the fight. Soon after Muffy joined, the odds were too great, but Moss had managed to land a punch while blades were being entangled.

Moss had soon struck some mean blows to Cyrax, throwing lefts and rights, that within moments he had dropped his weapon as he was dazed standing there, "BROKEN HEART ATTACK!" Moss yelled as he arched back his arm for the finisher, he the black and yellow armored man as hard as he could and tore through his chest ripping out his heart, he put it in a paper bag, he had folded up the flaps Cyrax looked in horror as he took the paper bag shaking in fear, "Why…"

"You just got served…" Moss said as Cyrax fell flat on his back dead. He put the paper bag on the dead heresy lord's chest.

Rex and the cat man looked at a dazed Louis, and the mysterious cat man started to talk, "I am you a few months in the future, this is a warning to stay away from the heresy lords, I made it back to this time period to change your future, since the threat is gone, you will not be able to go with them; Rex and I will go to Shadonia to destroy the literature and scriptures of heresy so no one will ever train or learn the ways of them again."

Rex started criticizing, "If Dr. Who heard about this, he probably wouldn't be too happy..."

"Dr. Who won't know, if anything I nearly died of radiation poisoning but Cyrax trained me, I killed him six months later because everyone I knew was dead from the malfunctioning weapon, so I went back in time, prevented my past self from joining them, and I managed to defeat Cyrax..."

They had both walked down the street without saying anything else, never to be seen again, Louis got up, his eyes were glazed, a paramedic looked at him, "He seems fine."

"…No more heresy lords…" was all he said and he had added, "Where is Giorgio…"

The paramedic looked Buck all he said was, "I guess we will take him to the hospital…"

Everyone had went their separate ways, this was probably one of those eventful things that when a person goes through with someone they would never speak with them again. It was happening to Sue Ellen and Fern; they had never really spoken to each other since they returned to Earth.

Even with Max and D.W. they never spoke much after the theft of the moped.

The Benneditto's had kidnapped the last surviving heresy lord, they had cement shoes fitted for him, and Davenport had driven them to the nearest river to drop him in as they threw him off a bridge.

"Poor cultist," Tony stated, "This is the end of the vendetta, your leader is dead, your cult is destroyed…" Moments later the last heresy lord had drowned.

All Sal said was, "Shoot him, and make sure he is truly dead."

Soon Davenport and company started shooting into the water and soon blood appeared.

Davenport turned to Tony, "Why didn't you kidnap her?"

"Because, I want to focus at one task at a time, those cultists are more dangerous, we ended them, we are going to kidnap her in a few days, when she visits Buck then we will get our 60 cars and a million dollars!"

The next day Muffy had biked over to Bucks she had found the place locked, and a note attached to the door.

_Dear Muffy: The wife and I have decided to move to Tennessee I am going to launch my singing career._

_If you need me I am at my house packing. Will be there for a few more days._

_Buck._

Muffy sighed sadly; she had always seen Buck with guitar in hand singing, 'Solitary Man' she had taken the note as a memento, and had rode her bike to Buck's

The next day at school Max had brought the box of chocolates, Mrs. Armstrong had smiled as he walked down the hallway towards Prunella, "These are for you."

Prunella was shocked, "For me?"

"I wasn't entirely honest with you; I have a crush on you…"

They had both hugged each other as there really wasn't much else to do, Mrs. Armstrong looked on all she said to herself was, "I am so proud of him."

They had both walked down the hallway chatting happily.

But there was one thing left… That evening when Max got home, he still had some feelings for Mrs. Armstrong, but who could blame him?

He went to his mother, "Mom, can we have Sue Ellen's family over for dinner tomorrow night?"

Mrs. Clarkson was curious, "Why?"

Max lied, "I just want to know more about them..."

Mrs. Clarkson fell for the lie and allowed it.

The next day after school Sue Ellen and her family were over at the Clarkson's, Max was wearing his Sundays best... which was quite dubious, the Clarkson's weren't expecting a world leader or anything, he looked at Mrs. Armstrong, "Can you tell me about yourself?'

"Well, I was born here, Mike was born in Crown City, Sue Ellen was born here, and I had told him that I wanted her to be born here because I wanted to be with our family when I went into labor."

Max was interested in the story, but he of course wasn't from Earth but still took the anthro form, but wasn't 'alien' either, "We were born on a planet called Tigris; it is a lush planet lots of jungles, gets hot at times... My ancestors came to Earth... probably in the Earth year 1880 they were Agnes and Theodore."

"I had an ancestor named Loretta from that time; according to the family tree she did marry someone named Theodore around… 1887. All I know is that he kind of looks…" Mrs. Armstrong was shocked she paused, her grandmother told her about Theodore, how he was a tiger man who always wore blue overalls Loretta had given birth to twins; one was to live with Agnes and the other with Theodore. This is what my Grandmother told me."

"Mom?" Sue Ellen said as she tugged on her mother's shirt.

Mrs. Armstrong looked at Max and his parents; she went face to face with him and said quietly, "You are related to me…"

Mrs. Clarkson was shocked, "Are you sure? I did have an ancestor named Loretta, and she looks almost like you. I been piecing it, because my grandmother told me that Agnes was told by Theodore to protect one of the twins since the in-laws didn't like the fact that he married Loretta; they shielded my ancestor from the truth, her name was Lucia, and her twins name was Amber, Agnes told Lucia when she was 18. But meeting Amber was next to impossible. I have question marks on my family tree under Amber because of it, they reunited but it was the only time they had seen each other, before Amber had kids of her own.

Mrs. Armstrong was thinking, "Amber was my great-great-grandmother, her father Theodore never really told her about Lucia. Then my grandmother, then my mother, then myself… So that means in a sense I am part Tigrisian?"

"You mean I am related to Max?" Sue Ellen asked in some shock not expecting it.

"DNA testing will probably be the best bet." Mr. Armstrong suggested.

The next day they had gone to the doctor's office, Sue Ellen wanted to know more of this, was it true that her ancestors from 1880 were not from Earth? That she was part Tigrisian?

When they got to the office the doctor took some DNA from Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Clarkson, "The test will conclude in three minutes."

Those three minutes were nail biters, within moments the tests were complete, "Ok, it seems that you both are related. You are distant relatives."

"I told them my ancestor twins, but they were both separated at birth."

Sue Ellen was shocked as she looked at Max, Mrs. Armstrong turned to Max, "Is this why you have been really affectionate to me?"

"Lucia returned to Tigris with Agnes," Mrs. Clarkson chimed in, "So I don't know what that makes us…"

"Distant cousins…" Mrs. Armstrong stated, "Don't know how distant, but according to the tests we are related."

Sue Ellen looked at her mother, "Was Buster right all along?"

"Well, yes and no, because Amber lived here with Theodore and Loretta, Lucia lived with Agnes and her husband who went back to Tigris, both kids wed someone from both planets, then those kids wed someone and so on until we get to you and Max."

"So it would mean that you are part Tigrisian? Despite you were born in Elwood City."

"Yea, _you_ are part Tigrisian, as being related by blood, it is hard for you to understand, but remember Mr. Ratburn gave you good marks for your family tree, I know your great-grandmother didn't tell much about Lucia, her parents didn't say a word about them."

Buster's cruel words had stung her, was he right all along? However a small part of her was Tigrisian. It seemed unreal at the time. She just hoped that her mom wouldn't want the class to do a family tree assignment. Or it wouldn't look good.

Max smiled at her, "So I guess that means were cousins."

Sue Ellen rolled her eyes, "Oh brother…"

To Be Continued.


	17. The Kidnapping Plans Escalate

Sue Ellen had walked outside of the house, Max looked at her in some disbelief, "What did you mean by saying, 'oh brother'?"

"Well, it was so unexpected…" Sue Ellen explained, "But remember there are a lot of people like Buster, who will do anything when he hears word of this, I don't want to hear Buster know or say anything of this..."

"An alien would be someone considered one who well…" Max replied but was cut off by his father.

"The doctor at the doctor's office on D-34 is the technical term of an alien." Mr. Clarkson interrupted.

"But you both don't understand Buster!" Sue Ellen replied worryingly, "He is a bit slow… and will make a big deal out of this, but for sanities sake, please don't tell him, he will embarrass us as well as himself."

Mrs. Armstrong overheard, "There is nothing wrong with it… but Buster doing that assuming his mom were still here, she would probably beat him, I am insistent that Mrs. Baxter beat Buster when he was younger, I am going to talk to Mr. Baxter."

She had driven over to Mr. Baxter's and Carla's, Carlos and Mora were enjoying coffee.

"Yep that Mrs. Armstrong is a piece of ace!" Carlos stated.

"There are two women present in the room, if you are going to harass her do it elsewhere!" Mora replied.

"Bo, I need to talk to you!" Mrs. Armstrong exclaimed.

Mr. Baxter sighed, he was at times as inept as Buster was, "Can't you see I have company?"

Mrs. Armstrong didn't really like Mr. Baxter's tone, "No it is important, to the kitchen."

Mrs. Armstrong grabbed Mr. Baxter by the ear and took him to the den, "Ouch!"

She smiled and let go, "This is what I usually do when Buster gets out of hand but seriously though, I need to know when Buster was younger did Bitzi beat him?"

Mr. Baxter lowered his head, "Yes… she was always angry, she always hit him I went to court over it telling the judge but she lied telling that I was hitting him, luckily I got custody. Don't tell this to Buster though, but of course he wasn't born here…" he spoke in a quiet voice, "I hope you know that Bitzi, Buster and I were born off planet…"

"I am just concerned, because the alien thing… I know we really shouldn't encourage him over something like that but my daughter is worried over it and over a certain piece of family history that she had just learned."

"Ok, I will not say anything that I told you…" Mr. Baxter sighed as his company chuckled at him.

She had left proper and had arrived home to make lunch, Max had watched her curiously as she smiled at him.

Max seemed a bit morose, "Do you think I am odd?"

Mrs. Armstrong smiled at him as she went face to face with him, "No… why do you say that?"

He sighed, "Buster thinks I am an alien…"

"Buster says a lot of things;" Mrs. Armstrong sighed sadly, "People shouldn't encourage him."

He knew something was wrong with how she had replied, he smiled at her, "I know something is wrong…"

Mrs. Armstrong couldn't get past that smile of Max, "It is about Buster, can't really tell you since if word got out child protective services would go after Mr. Baxter…"

"Ohhh…." Max replied as he understood.

"You see, the world isn't really much of a happy place with wars and political strife, but there needs to be more people like you …" she commented sadly as she saw Fern and Sue Ellen arguing outside.

"Ever since yesterday, they have been arguing I don't know what is wrong with them?

Outside the argument didn't escalate to anything physical just words, "I saved your parents from being killed!"

Fern of course was yelling "You ran off like 10 minutes before me, and you think I should be happy?"

Sue Ellen argued with the fact of course, the facts were there, the proof was there, "Yea, I helped them to safety! I think you should at least thank me!"

Max went outside to see what was going on, "Can you two stop it?"

"What so you can still suck up to my mom?" Sue Ellen exclaimed.

"Yea!" Fern commented.

It was true, Max did exactly that.

"Well at least I didn't dress up like a Jedi when coming home or a dark mage!" Max yelled.

Mrs. Armstrong sighed; she knew it was going to be a long day…

----

Mr. Davenport had the plans outlined on lined paper, he was smoking a cigar while he looked at the Benneditto's, in particular Tony, "Ok, Tony, here is the plan, we kidnap the monkey girl, demand 60 hot cars, and 1 million dollars, and we get the hell out of here."

"Brilliant…"

Mr. Davenport was suspicious of Tony's integrity, "Should I tell you the name of the girl?"

"No, I remember her, as much as I remember what she looks like," Tony yelled.

"Should we get going with the plan?" Davenport asked.

"We will share the victory with some Italian red wine for killing those cultists once and for all, they will think twice before coming back here despite helping Buck, but screw him!"

Salvatore had a bottle of home made wine and they started pouring glasses of the red wine and they drank for victories sake.

Tony continued to talk, "Once she is kidnapped, Buck will lose it."

Sonny of course asked, "Then we kill him right? I mean he partially screwed me over as did that one cultist, and that girl."

Giorgio commented, "We will kill him and her, if they don't do what is stated in the ransom."

Davenport was impatient, "Well lets get going!"

To Be Continued.


	18. Who Is April Murphy?

Authors note: April Murphy is © Dead Composer.

----

Muffy was over at Buck's she was a bit upset that he was leaving, they both had been through a lot, he was like a father figure to her, but it was the cold hard truth, people needed to move on to bigger and better things. She couldn't change his mind; he was set for the music industry.

Buck had carried his computer case he had seen how upset she was, "I will remember you when I move to Tennessee, don't be upset, I promise when my single becomes a hit, I will invite you to my place."

Muffy had hugged him as she started to cry, "Don't go, I will miss you."

Buck hugged her, "I will be here for two more days; we are just packing right now," they had both went inside, he had offered her a can of Coke, "I'd love to stay here, but there really isn't much for me in country music here."

Muffy lowered her head in sadness, he meant a lot to her, they weren't close when they first met, but they both started to go on these far out adventures transcending light years to strange planets, fight injustice and what not all in a days work. But those days were over, Buck is about 39 years old, he stroked his graying goatee, and he sighed sadly, "Where does the time go? You have your life ahead of you; I am already halfway through mine."

This had guilt ridden Muffy, as she wiped her tears away, "I will stay strong… Someone has to keep a lid on things while you are gone."

Buck sighed, as he looked at his wife, "So beautiful…"

Muffy still had feelings of sadness inside of her… The sadness had engulfed her, she had run to the bathroom as fast as she could, the next thing she knew her head was in the bowl of the toilet and she had thrown up. She had laid on the shag rug holding her stomach in pain.

"What happened?" Buck asked.

"I… don't… know… I think I still have the lingering effects of the food poisoning…" Muffy mumbled.

"You are nervous, and you should probably see a doctor or it will simply get worse…" Buck said as he had seen her tremble nervously, "I don't have confidence in that pill that weirdo doctor gave you."

She curled up into a ball and she was crying as well as ignoring his advice, "I just don't want you to leave…"

Muffy was so emotionally attached to him, that she treated him like her father. It was almost comparative to when Max was attached to Mrs. Armstrong. He had a sad smile on his face, "I will come back to visit, but no more adventures, I am getting too old for this…" Muffy had gotten up and they hugged.

She had left the house and walked down the street, flurries were in the air as some landed on her face, as she was at the crosswalk; she had seen Francine walking down the street being pulled into a white van.

Muffy screamed in horror as she saw it happened… she fainted on the cold sidewalk.

The world was a cold unforgiving place.

Francine was in the van she shrieked and a hand covered her mouth, it was Tony, he had a crazy scheme, he thought it was Muffy to the chagrin of everyone else in the vehicle, "We are going to play a game, we are going to hold a ransom of $1 million dollars… and to top it off, a list of 60 cars in 30 days. These cars have to be classic, sporty and luxury cars."

"Tony that isn't Muffy…" Roscoe warned.

"Shut up and tie her up!" Tony warned; he pulled out a black pistol and pointed it at Roscoe, and added "Before I shoot you or something…"

Roscoe tied her up with some nylon rope; he had turned around as he finished up the ransom note made of clipped letters from magazines.

---

Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn were really hitting it off, they were enjoying each others company, the aardvark man began to speak, "Jane is out shopping with the kids, and I want to have dinner with you."

Mr. Ratburn smiled, "It is so good of you to show up," however he put Mr. Read on the spot, "So when are you going to tell Jane?"

Read didn't expect that question to come out, he seemed slightly miffed about it, "I don't know, I don't know how she will handle it; I don't know how the kids will accept it."

"We have to tell them sooner or later, we can't keep it a secret because sooner or later someone will find out…"

That was what Mr. Read was afraid of.

The next day Fern was fooling around with that oak wand that she had gotten, her friends were nervous because of it, especially Sue Ellen and Max.

Prunella thought it was so cool though she was mildly jealous.

Fern was fooling around with it, until a white sphere of energy came out and hit Max knocking him unconscious in a small snow bank.

Sue Ellen was shocked, she grabbed her collar and shook her, "What did you do?"

Fern grabbed Sue Ellen's hands, "I don't know…"

Sue Ellen sighed, "This is why we get rid of things of mysterious powers, because they often lead to serious repercussions. I don't want any more strange adventures... I just want to savor my childhood before well before we all become teenagers…"

"I was only fooling around with it, nothing major," Fern replied as Max got up, "See he got up."

"W-what happened?" Max asked as he dusted his jacket off of snow.

Sue Ellen was a bit annoyed she looked at him, "Fern cast a spell with _something_ she _should have_ got rid of after Cyrax was defeated…"

Max didn't know it but he felt that there was something definitely wrong, he was a bit nervous about what had happened.

Prunella looked at him, "You are looking a little flush, what seems to be the problem?"

Max of course replied with an, "I don't know…"

"Fern!" Sue Ellen exclaimed, and then yelled, "Fix him! He might have amnesia!"

Fern of course was worried, "I don't know what I cast, give me a break…"

"I will break your arm if you don't tell me what you did!" and the cat girl walked towards her and grabbed Fern's arm putting pressure on it while Max separated the two girls.

Max was now annoyed with the two girls, "Why must you both fight like this? I remember when you were both friends and you helped each other out!"

Sue Ellen lowered her head, "I worry about you sometimes, I worry something bad is going to happen to you and it will be too late…"

"Where are you going with this?" Asked the confused tiger boy.

Of course Sue Ellen remembered a piece of _recent history_, "Remember _April_?"

"Who is _April_?" Max asked curiously as he of course has never read the _Arthur Goes Fourth _or _Fifth_ series.

Sue Ellen just ran off crying.

Fern started to explain, "_April_ is…"

(Spoiler deleted)

"…and that is what happened to _April_." Fern explained.

"Is that why she is so upset?" Max asked.

"It isn't her fault…" Prunella replied but Buster overheard the conversation.

Buster added a rude comment, "Yea, I think it is."

"Buster!" Fern and Max exclaimed.

"What?"

"Sue Ellen happens to be a bit upset over someone named _April_, so can you lay off her for the rest of the day at least?" Max asked, and then he had an evil grin on his face, "Or I will tell Mrs. Baxter what you have been doing!"

Buster shrieked, "No! Anything but that!"

Fern had one more thing to ask Max, she had pointed out the obvious, "Why are we putting _April_ in italics for?"

Prunella covered the question, "Perhaps she will be a guest here…"

Max went over and found Sue Ellen crying, Arthur had seen her with Muffy, Arthur was consoling the upset cat girl "I know how you feel, Francine is gone…"

"It isn't anything to do with that…" Max commented.

Muffy didn't say anything; she didn't even acknowledge anyone's presence.

"What's with Muffy?" Max asked curiously.

Arthur lent the explanation, "She saw Francine get kidnapped."

Sue Ellen wiped away her tears, "I still can't believe the way she died, and it was too horrible to watch…"

"Why do you worry about me so much?" Max asked nervously, "Is this why you think I am going to die the same way she did?"

"I don't want to see any more people close to me die, she was so young…"

Buster overheard, "She had it coming…"

Sue Ellen literally freaked out; she chased Buster with an almost deranged look on her face as she tried to tackle him breathing heavily as she wanted to well see him suffer

"Oh please don't hurt me!" Buster whined nervously as she tried to get him and he ran off like a little girl, she was trying to jump on him but was missing and getting angrier.

Five minutes later, Sue Ellen had a satisfied smile on her face and Buster's ears were tied in a knot at the base, "I feel much better now…."

To Be Continued.


	19. Buster Goes To The Hospital

Buster ran off almost crying, he couldn't hear anything his aural passages had been blocked off, he had ran into Carla and Bo who were walking down a snowy path in the park nearby, "What's wrong?" Bo asked worryingly.

Buster of course couldn't hear, "What?"

Mr. Baxter looked a bit closer his were starting to turn red, "Your ears… I better take you to the hospital…"

Moments later Buster was at the hospital, the doctor had looked at them, "We will need to freeze them and undo the knot," The doctor chuckled, "Good thing he can't hear us because he would probably run."

All Buster had seen was lips moving but couldn't hear the sounds, the doctor had come in with a needle, Buster of course freaked, "I think my ears are fine!" Buster tried to undo his ears, but failed, "Ouch!"

The doctor injected some stuff to freeze his ears and in a few short moments he easily undid Buster's ears as the rabbit boy winced in pain, Mr. Baxter had turned to his son as he could now hear properly, "Now there is a reason why this probably happened, can you please tell me?"

"I made Sue Ellen upset about something…" Buster admitted.

"You are to apologize to Sue Ellen, and stay in your room when you get home," Carla stated as she was annoyed.

"Aww…" Buster whined, "It isn't my fault Sue Ellen snapped."

Mr. Baxter continued to discipline his son, "Sometimes it is called responsibility; think about it before you upset her or someone else again."

---

Sue Ellen felt a bit more confident to approach Fern about the problem, but it was close to turning physical.

"What are you going to do?" Fern asked being a bit uncharacteristic, "Cry to your mom? Cry because _April _died?"

Sue Ellen felt tears stream down her checks, "No!"

She went at her and tackled her and they started some fighting.

Mr. Kane was typing up a news story on his laptop, but was interrupted when he had heard the physical arguing between and he had to break up the two girls, "What is wrong with you both? After being away for three days down in Cancun where there was snow due to the strange weather conditions, and I come back and everyone seems to be in a bad mood all of a sudden… I am honestly thinking you both have Seasonal Affective Disorder or something."

"Fern cast something on Max!" Sue Ellen complained as she wiped away her tears.

"It was by accident!" Fern shot back

Mr. Kane had looked at the tiger boy, he couldn't detect anything wrong physical… well not at the moment, "He seems fine, I wouldn't worry about it, and if he was poisoned he would be throwing up everywhere as his cells would get damaged and he would be getting sicker by the moment."

"WHAT?" Shrieked the cat girl, "Fern, I am going to find out what you did!" Sue Ellen and Max both walked away.

Moments later Sue Ellen was panicking she had all means to and she knew there was something wrong with Max, however he didn't show it, "W-we need to get you to a hospital."

"Sue Ellen, I think I am fine…" Max replied as he stopped walking.

"Look don't make me repeat myself about me worrying about you," Sue Ellen's voice soon turned to nervousness and fear, "Fern cast some sort of spell on you, and I think you might be having some sort of internal injuries!" She pulled Max's arm and dragged him to the hospital as she was scared; she soon found a nurse, "P-please help him, because, I think there is something wrong with him…"

"Calm down…" She replied as Sue Ellen was a mess, she then looked at Max, "Everything looks fine."

They left the hospital, Sue Ellen was nearly in tears over many things of course, she couldn't keep her mind straight and focused; she took Max, home, "Stay home, I will check on you tomorrow."

Sue Ellen was still scared, she didn't know what to expect, she had all rights to be scared, this was nerve-wracking she was avoiding everyone, especially Fern and Buster, because she knew if she had ran into him odds were that she would mention something about being related to Max, she didn't need Buster saying anything of the sort basically because Buster would start up the crazy thing about her being an alien. And Fern it would probably be more of a physical altercation, she didn't want to hurt her.

It had scarred her emotionally; she didn't want to tell her mom about what happened, she would say that 'he is fine', she walked home, her mother noticed Sue Ellen trembling nervously, "What's wrong?"

She stuttered which was a dead giveaway that something was terribly wrong, "N-nothing…"

Mrs. Armstrong knew something was up, "Sue Ellen, I know when you are nervous about something when you stutter. Please tell me."

Sue Ellen couldn't tell her, but she had to make up a lie, "Fern and I had a huge argument it was almost physical…"

Mrs. Armstrong patronized her, "Sue Ellen if you are having problems with your classmates, you should talk to me… or Mr. Haney, or another teacher; when you are with your friends I can't be there to mediate. It will be same in high school; I can't help you solve problems with people you seem to be have problems with."

Sue Ellen was shocked, "What?"

"What I am saying, you should ask for help when you need it because some day, there may be no one around who will help you. What will you do when I pass on?"

Sue Ellen shrieked and was almost in tears again, "WHAT? You're dying?"

"No, I have like 40 or 50 years left, but don't expect me to help you every time you have a problem; it is up to you to solve it; You are 10 years old and you should have some problem solving skills…"

Sue Ellen panicked, "Mom, tell me! There is something you aren't telling me!"

"I don't have any medical conditions," Mrs. Armstrong replied as she was trying to calm her daughter down but failed.

Now Sue Ellen was slightly annoyed, "Are you just saying that to patronize me?"

"No, the doctor told me…" Mrs. Armstrong replied

However Sue Ellen grabbed her hand, "We will see."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed and Sue Ellen wouldn't stop bugging her; her mother wanted to reassure her as the cat girl seemed upset over something. The cat girl dragged her mother to the garage, she wanted to be sure.

When they had got to the hospital, they were instantly admitted, the same doctor who took care of Buster looked at a file, "It seems that you have anorexia, you are going to die in six months if you keep up your eating disorder…" Sue Ellen started to cry as she hugged her mom, "Oops that is Mrs. Hiltons file, how could I mix up the two?" he continued looking through the files "You are in perfect health; you are going to live for a long time as I don't see any medical conditions, you can easily live to be 100."

"See?" Mrs. Armstrong replied as she saw her shirt wet with her daughters tears.

Sue Ellen looked at the file to be sure, "You are sure?"

"Yes, I had an appointment with her the day that school was off, don't worry, you won't be losing her…" he noticed Sue Ellen, "You wouldn't have been the one who tied Buster's ears together have you?"

"…he upset me…" Sue Ellen nodded, "He was talking about a certain person I'd rather keep in the past…"

"Buster is a bit hyperactive for his age, I am kind of investigating to see if his mother beat him or not…" The Armstrong's drove home and they went into the den, "Sue Ellen, nothing is going to happen to me, I am sorry for what I said earlier…"

She lowered her head and walked to her room without saying anything. What sort of curse did Fern do? He didn't freeze or burst into flames or anything… It wasn't like last year where magic was made without the assistance of a wand. But apparently magic with a wand was easier.

She was scared and it was starting to become neurotic, she trembled with fear; she curled up into a little ball, if anything was definite she was scared and not much ever scared her, but this did, she got back up and locked the door and she curled herself up into a little ball.

She spent most of the day in her room, thinking diligently figuring out what had happened. She didn't want to rule out that Fern had too much fun casting elemental magic with the wand.

It was silly, and asinine to think anything of the sort.

Fern received the wand as a gift and nothing more. Despite to her, Fern didn't deserve it, because Fern obviously never heard of Spiderman.

Great power means great responsibility.

But to Sue Ellen; Fern didn't show great responsibility. She showed great irresponsibility.

-----------------------

Mr. Frensky had received the ransom letter, he put it down in disbelief, there were a few people he knew 60 cars in a month and that was 2 cars a day, he had made a few phone calls. He had called Mr. Crosswire, Buck, Moss and Reno.

They had come over; Buck was a bit stressed, "Oliver this better be important."

He lowered his head, "Francine was kidnapped, they want a million dollars and 60 cars, sporty, luxury and classic models."

Buck had a tear flowing down his face, "It is noon already we need to get going."

Moss looked at the list, "Ok I had seen a 2002 Cadillac Escalade at the Sugar Bowl, and I always see a white 1970 Cadillac El Dorado at a cruise night at the local 50's diner."

"You aren't serious…" Reno replied as he scanned the list, "I had seen an El Camino…"

Mr. Crosswire argued, "No, El Dorado, not the Chevy El Camino…"

Mr. Clarkson continued to talk, "We have to drop off the cars in Rockwood, advantages are that it is in Teal County, disadvantages are that we can't let Mr. Freeman or Mr. Ryder know..."

Mr. Crosswire continued to read the list as he took it off Reno's hands, "1969 Ford Mustang? 2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello? Mrs. Armstrong owns it, it is dear to her."

Mr. Clarkson smiled, "She would kill you if you took it."

"Reno, anything has to be taken, when an opportunity comes along it is best to take it, Mrs. Armstrong is going to be having her car stolen," Mr. Frensky sighed as he continued to read the list, he went wide eyed, "That car isn't even made anymore, an Aston Martin V8, these guys are insane."

Reno sighed, "No, they are making this a hard game; we must get going, where to first?"

Mr. Crosswire sighed sadly, "Someone please take Mrs. Armstrong's 2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello… Because I'm not going to."

To Be Continued.


	20. Deadline Autotheft

Everyone gave Ed Crosswire a shocked look.

Mr. Crosswire panicked after he said that, "She is going to kill me… That is her prized possession; she would die if something happened to that car! Every day after she is done school I see her clean it."

Mr. Frensky reassured him, "No, we steal the car in the evening, and when no one is around. I feel guilty about doing it but to ensure my daughters safety, we have to do something gutsy."

Reno took the list from Mr. Crosswire, "Where the hell are we going to find a Mercedes Benz 600? And a Rolls Royce Phantom? My god! Those cars are next to impossible to find."

Mr. Crosswire calmed Reno down, "_We_ can easily get some of these cars, but finding the rarities will be hard."

Mr. Frensky sighed, "A Lotus Esprit? A new model Buick Rendezvous? A Bentley!" Mr. Crosswire started cursing now as Moss took the sheet.

Moss read it, "A 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood? A 1973 Lincoln Continental? A 1972 Plymouth Barracuda, a 1980 Lamborghini Miura."

"It is next to impossible, most of these cars are hard to find, out of production and cost upwards to a million dollars. Freeman will kill us if we were to steal all these cars." Reno said sadly.

Frensky was nearly crying, "I just want my daughter back, they are sick! These guys want a 1969 Dodge Daytona where do they expect me to steal one? Same with the Porsche 911 Twin Turbo."

Buck started to talk, "Cruise Night has a few of these cars, what we could do is use sleeping gas, we work on taking them while everyone is out."

The evening had come, Reno had gone to the Armstrong's, "I am so sorry to do this," he had jimmied the lock of the red Ferrari and hotwired the car and drove off.

She had heard her prized possession revving up and it had driven off into the night. She ran outside, "My Car!"

Reno had sped off towards Teal County as she had called the police, within moments a police car was following him but couldn't catch up his ride was way too fast; he realized that the police wouldn't have any jurisdiction outside their own county.

Moss had found a white Mercedes Benz CL 500 he had done the same thing the owner called the police and soon another cop car was on him, this car wasn't really built for speed, but he was nearing 60 MPH. Mr. Crosswire was at a hidden pickup point near the warehouse, he and Mr. Frensky were parked there.

Reno was a bit apprehensive of this plot of stealing cars, "What am I going to tell my wife?"

"You are whipped man!" Moss joked, "What your wife don't know, don't hurt her, like my wife doesn't know I argued with her when we dated on and off about getting a tattoo, and she said I shouldn't, but I got a tattoo of Johnny Cash on my ass but she doesn't even know about it…"

Everyone just looked at Moss.

"Johnny Cash is the man!" Buck yelled, "We but we don't need to know you have a tattoo of him on your ass that may be a bit too obsessive."

* * *

Sue Ellen woke up, it was a new day, and to her she felt like she could conquer the world… 

Really? No.

This was a definite lie, Max probably had some strange curse or something, she couldn't do it she couldn't face the outside world at all. She was having a hard time coping with the situation after all that has happened with finding out she was related to the poor tiger boy; she had all means to be upset over it without criticism from her peers.

Her mother was in the kitchen already dressed in her best casual clothes for school that day, she had sipped her coffee and smiled sadly at her, mainly because her car was stolen she was upset, "You see, a good nights sleep is all you needed…"

"Hmph…" Sue Ellen nodded in disbelief, "I'd rather not face the outside world today…"

"Come on, it isn't that bad, it is nice today, it stopped snowing," Mrs. Armstrong commented, as her voice turned to annoyance, "Despite someone stole my car…" she changed the topic, "I am going to school today because I need to teach."

"I heard you crying all night…" Sue Ellen noted as it was most certainly true.

"I bought the car, to make me feel young again," Mrs. Armstrong explained then sighed, "It is time for us to go to school."

They had walked to school proper despite Mr. Armstrong using the other vehicle… the mini-van to take her brother to her mother in laws. And he would be off to work.

The next day Max went to see his friends, he was a few inches shorter, two inches shorter than Sue Ellen's height, his clothes didn't fit too well he looked like he was a year younger, Sue Ellen swallowed her sadness, she was trying to figure out what was wrong, but it was too early to tell.

Sue Ellen of course was thinking the worse as he got to school, he had just turned a few weeks ago 10; he looked like he was 9 years old, a fourth grader, a year younger, and a few inches shorter to around her height. She seemed a bit upset when she saw him, "Do you know what the problem was?"

"No…" Max replied nervously then thought of something, "I am not as tall as I was yesterday…"

She panicked, she was pacing left and right now, but Max had reassured her that nothing was wrong; when they had arrived at the school; Sue Ellen took Max to the nurse's office, trying to remain calm, "I think there is something wrong with him…"

"He is a few inches shorter than the last time I saw him…" The nurse replied but this was the killer, "Other than that he looks to be in perfect health."

Sue Ellen had ran off almost in tears, there was something wrong with Max, and she was about to get to the bottom of it; she had seen Fern talking to Prunella, and she looked at her, "What did you do?"

Fern sighed, "You think I had done something?"

"Max shorter than me; he is normally two or three inches taller than me!" Prunella separated them; they both looked like they were going to fight, "What did you do to my cousin!"

This was an awful mistake, Buster overheard, "You are related to Max, and that means you _are_ an alien."

Fern and Sue Ellen both looked at Buster, they had both said at the same time, "Shut up Buster!"

Buster ran off saying, "I am going to tell everyone."

Sue Ellen followed suit and she caught up to him, "Please don't, I won't tell anyone you weren't born off planet!"

"Can I post it on my blog?"

"NO!"

"Tell in a chat room?"

"Buster, if I said no the first time, what makes you think I will say yes the second time? You are so immature it isn't funny!"

Fern chuckled as he heard Sue Ellen argue with Buster, it was classic. However Sue Ellen had enough and she went to class.

Fern turned to Buster, "Don't do anything to upset her; I know I probably did something when I accidentally curse him, and don't interfere in other peoples arguments or I could use that thing on you!"

Buster looked a bit nervous, he was intimidated more of Fern than Sue Ellen, he sighed sadly, "Well, what is worse is that Mrs. Armstrong brought in everyone's grandparents, just think of all the embarrassing stories they will tell."

Fern of course had a huge grin, "I am sure they will enlighten us with many stories, many interesting stories that is."

Buster sighed as he lowered his head nervously he was embarrassed, "Yea…"

Fern smiled, "It isn't all going to be bad, like my grandfather worked as a millwright…"

"That sounds boring," Buster commented, but joked, "And Sue Ellen's grandparents are evil aliens in disguise."

"Buster, please…" Fern protested as she heard enough, "Sue Ellen has had it tough for the past 24 hours; she I think is upset because of Francine."

"Or _you know who._" Buster smiled.

"Don't mention her about _April_…" Fern warned, then smiled, "Or I will have to use the wand and blow up your house."

"You wouldn't dare!"

Fern pulled out the wand and pointed it at a tree about thirty yards away, the tree was about 10 years old, and it had exploded, "See?"

Buster nearly wet his pants, "Eep…"

"Don't say a word when Sue Ellen's grandma talks today."

"I won't!"

"Or we can see how you look if you were dressed up like a baby…" Fern chuckled as she pointed the wand at Buster.

Buster said nothing.

Fern continued to point the wand at the rabbit boy, "Good, then we are in this together, you behave yourself and I won't do some stupid curse to you."

"Fair enough…" Buster replied as they both shook hands.

To Be Continued.


	21. Theories About A Terlet

Mrs. Armstrong was fixing up some notes when she had seen that Sue Ellen was upset about something, she had figured it was something trivial such as lunch money, she put her hand into her purse and pulled out a few dollar bills. She didn't really need this today her mother was coming to class for the presentations; her car was stolen last night, her prized possession that she simply bought with saving money all her life. She wanted it to feel young again, but now she had to drive the mini-van and it was far from pleasing, it made her feel old.

Sue Ellen whimpered she was upset of course, "M-mom, something is wrong with Max!"

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "Not this again… Max is healthy… can you please show some consideration and respect, your grandmother will be talking about her life in class today."

Max had walked in, as he was two or three inches shorter than Sue Ellen's height, and almost a foot shorter than Prunella "See?"

She looked at him, "He is about four or five inches shorter… But I don't really see what is wrong with him can you please show some respect to your grandmother?"

"Sue Ellen, calm down, there isn't anything wrong with me," Max commented, "You are stressed it is the math test she is giving us?"

She of course forgot to study, "Oh no!"

As everyone else got into class, Mrs. Armstrong had everyone's attention as the students elderly counterparts had sat next to them, "I am glad we have many students' grandparents here telling us about their interesting lives. The elderly have so much to teach us." She looked at Binky's grandmother, "Binky, your grandma should enlighten us about her life and times."

Binky's grandma came up, she was about 65 or 70 years old, had some gray hair, and looked a little bit like like Mrs. Barnes, "My name is Rowena Smith, I lived here when Elwood City was much, much smaller…" after years of life experience, it was time to tell the part of when Binky was five or six years old, "When Binky was five or six years old, I helped him out a lot especially at that time when he wet the bed every night," Binky was shocked and appalled as everyone chuckled at him, "His mother didn't know what was wrong, we usually had to change the sheets twice because of his little bed time accidents."

Even Mrs. Armstrong managed a chuckle… or two. It was good for her to laugh at such a dire situation as her car being stolen; she hoped for some more entertaining stories.

"Binky stopped wetting the bed when he was around nine years old, as the years had passed, for Christmas I would knit him a sweater and give him a big kiss on the forehead and make him wear the sweater on those chilly days, such as today," she presented Binky with a dorky looking green sweater, "Here you go grandson," and she got up and pinched his cheek.

Binky even more shocked thought that he would probably die on the spot.

"Thank you Mrs. Smith," Mrs. Armstrong said with a huge grin on her face, she looked at her mother, "Mom, how about you come up and tell us a little bit about yourself."

Sue Ellen's grandma came up, she had looked exactly like Mrs. Armstrong except that her grandma had some graying hair, "I am Norma Knight, I was born near the end of World War II in Elwood City year 1945, my life wasn't spectacular and we didn't have much money, I have two sons and two daughters, and eight grandchildren. Mrs. Armstrong is the youngest in my family. When Sue Ellen was born, I was blessed with such a lovely child… I even have a baby picture of her."

Sue Ellen's grandma had shown the baby picture, Max looked at it, "You were so cute when you were a baby…"

All Sue Ellen thought was, _please don't embarrass me grandma._

And all Mrs. Armstrong thought was, _Sue Ellen and Buster please behave your selves…_

Buster raised his hand. Sue Ellen and Mrs. Armstrong were a bit nervous about what Buster would say.

_Oh god…_

"Mrs. Knight… or Sue Ellen's grandma, is it true that Sue Ellen and her family are aliens?"

Mrs. Armstrong was writing a note saying, 'Mr. Haney please keep Buster occupied for the morning.' Sue Ellen looked at the floor in utter embarrassment as her mother spoke, "Buster, I have an important note I need you to send to Mr. Haney."

Mrs. Armstrong's mother chided her, "Christine…" she turned to Buster, "No, but I do have the original paper of the Roswell sighting, straight out of Roswell; my mother was all into the alien stuff."

Buster sat down and was satisfied with the answer.

"Thank's mom," Mrs. Armstrong said happily, "Ok Buster's Grandmother, please come up enlighten the class."

A lively elderly rabbit women came up, "I have some stories, portions of my life are good like how there was the time I shown Buster how to use the swing, he figured out how to get on it, but after he didn't know how to get off it and he started to cry."

Mrs. Armstrong, the students and the other elderly speakers were just laughing. But still found the stories that Binky's grandma told were priceless.

"Poor Buster…" She chuckled, "Then my husband wanted to invent something useful, so he invented something called the Terlet; it is even better than Abe Simpson's version of the Terlet, my remarks are that he worked three years on it."

"Are you sure we should disclose more remarks on this item?" Mrs. Armstrong asked trying not to laugh.

"He spent five years working on the Terlet, until that skunk Abe Simpson stole the plans… anyways, in closing remarks; I got some photos of Buster, one where he was playing dress up in his cousin's clothes." She had shown a video of a four year old Buster wearing girl's clothes.

Everyone just laughed.

Mrs. Armstrong was still laughing, "Thank you Mrs. Baxter, Ok, Arthur's grandfather lets see what sort of stories you have…"

He came up, "My name is David Wright, I own a farm close to the town of Rockwood, I am going to be brutally honest with you, I went through a lot of mixed emotions when Arthur's father married my daughter, I was his intent was to go and visit Boystown and cheat on her with a guy when she went away to Crown City on business…"

Mrs. Armstrong interrupted him, "I don't know if this story would be appropriate enough talking about such things of adult nature."

This was _way_ too awkward for Arthur; his own grandfather was telling the class stories about Mr. Read not being right for Jane.

----

At recess Sue Ellen confronted Buster, "You embarrassed me in front of the class again!"

"Why are you being so emotional for?" Buster asked curiously.

"…It is Max" She replied in a quiet voice.

"Not _April_?" Buster asked, "What are you going to do? Cry to your mom?" Buster asked rudely.

"Buster stop…" Fern warned, "Sue Ellen by all means has rights to be upset…"

Sue Ellen was nearing the breaking point, "But I am worried, what if Max dies the same way she did?"

"…Won't happen…" Buster stated, "If he does, then you could go and cry to your mom…"

All Fern and Sue Ellen said was, "Shut up Buster!"

Everyone looked at Binky and his mother as his grandmother was sitting in the car, "Mom can we put grandma in a home…"

"She is living on her own…" Mrs. Barnes interrupted.

"No I mean a home where she can't get out of…" Binky urged, "She embarrassed me in class."

Buster joined him, "Not as bad as my grandma telling the class how I cried because I didn't know how to get off a swing, or how she told the class on how my grandfather invented the Terlet."

This day was the worse, everything was going bad very quickly, Sue Ellen didn't study for her test, she was now thinking Max was age regressing, and Fern and her had argued again almost this time physically.

Mrs. Armstrong was hiding her upset undertones, she wasn't upset because of any students it was because her car was stolen, the classroom was empty, and she was crying.

Undoubtedly Max walked in and saw her, "What's wrong?"

She dried her tears, "Something of great value to me was stolen yesterday…"

"Are you going to get it back?"

She stopped crying, "Typically when someone steals something, no one returns it, but I put a lot of insurance on the car just incase it was stolen, it is so good of you to ask, I know you probably think that I am boring or something…"

"No, I like you…" Max commented.

"Max, you are a good kid…"

When everyone else had come into class, Sue Ellen glared at Fern, and Buster. Buster was phased by it he was scared of the cat girl a classic thing she loved to do was tie his ears into a knot.

Buster glared at the cat girl, "Sue Ellen, you do know I had to go to the hospital and they did operate on my ears to undo them."

Unluckily everyone heard Buster and they laughed at him.

"Just like the time they surgically removed you from the swing seat when you were younger?" Arthur joked.

"You aren't going to drop that are you?" Buster asked.

"Nope…"

Mr. Frensky had found a white 1970 Cadillac El Dorado; he turned to Moss, "Get the Escalade from the Sugar Bowl."

Frensky had hot wired the classic car and drove off with it, this vehicle was definitely not built for speed, and it was a luxury car as well as a classic car. He was lucky no one was around to see him take the car and make the trek to Teal County.

It had taken him a while, to get there, he was personally hoping for a sports car like a 2002 Dodge Viper, but Buck wanted to take that car on the last day. It was rather inconvenient because someone could move it and it could risk failing to pull it off, but Buck loved to take risks, it was a cold and calculating risk that he despite harsh criticism from Moss and Reno he was willing to take the risk, he wanted to be the one to pick up Francine and get attention of the authorities it was a dream car… but a 4 x 4 ford pickup was more his style.

Buck was shocked that someone could kidnap her, hold a ransom for a million dollars and force them to get 60 classic, luxury and sports cars. Even though theoretically they can steal two a day, they were wondering about getting some more in a day to speed up the process.

While Reno was beside himself, he had stolen Mrs. Armstrong's Ferrari, he was feeling guilty because of it; his wife told him that she was crying because of her loss. He knew if he continued to do this he was going to crack any minute. He didn't know if he was going to be able to stay cool under pressure.

Moss was driven to the Sugar Bowl, it was empty, he had seen the expensive SUV parked there, and Buck turned to him and said, "Good luck," he had drove off.

Moss had surprisingly opened the door; the keys were in the ignition and drove towards Teal County, unfortunately Freeman had saw him steal it and drive down Main Street.

"Pull over!" Freeman yelled but nothing, he was nearing the SUV to run it off the road. Moss picked up speed and was driving towards the county line, he had managed to get into Teal County; Freeman was forced to turn around on the lonely country road, "Mr. Manino is going to be pissed."

They had driven back into town, four cars stolen; 56 left; and zero arrests.

Mr. Freeman parked the car in front of The Sugar Bowl he had walked in, "Mr. Manino, it was a failure, your Escalade got stolen, but you aren't alone, three other people had gotten their car stolen as well.

He wasn't impressed, "You need to get it back!"

"I can't it went into Teal County, I have no jurisdiction there, if I do anything there that interferes in police business in Teal County and I could be arrested, we would have to get highway patrol and the state troopers involved."

Ryder walked in at the last sentence, "At the extreme we will, we are going to catch them and they will be making license plates for the rest of their lives."

Moss had dropped the car off shortly after Reno did; Mr. Crosswire and Mr. Frensky were waiting for them, he had crossed the cars off the list. This was a painstaking risk, but it had come with some justice as well. Tomorrow night was cruise night at the 50's diner, several cars that were regulars there, were slated to be at the diner, even some of the rarities.

They had gone back to Crosswire Motors, to plan the big heist, "Ok, Cruise night at the 50's diner we need to plan this as this is our biggest heist yet. Buck, you got some sleeping gas, as everyone is settled, we throw a few canisters into the parking lot, it'll put everyone to sleep; we then put our gas masks on, and take four cars off the list. We have 15 minutes to get out of the area before everyone wakes up.

This was a risky operation, surely there was going to be a police presence involved, due to the thefts of the other cars. They collectively were ready for it, despite police presence; the next factor was of course not getting the cars damaged.

To Be Continued.


	22. The Curse Of Eternal Youth

The next day at school, Max was shorter than Sue Ellen by a few inches, he had looked like he was a third grader, Sue Ellen had continued to freak out, this was going to be a long week, it was only Tuesday. Max looked like he was 8 years old. Sue Ellen of course was upset; she got into Fern's face

Mrs. Armstrong was annoyed with Sue Ellen she separated them both, it was rarely that she ever was as she was always a good student with good marks and good attendance; she wondered why the cat girl was lashing out like this for it was right in front of her; her mind couldn't accept what was happening, she was more worried about Sue Ellen's well being. She couldn't believe her about Max age regressing. There was absolutely no way she could believe her own daughter because in reality there was no such thing as age regression, it was in the form of magic, this had upset the poor cat girl.

"Mom!" Sue Ellen shrieked when she saw Max.

Mrs. Armstrong sighed and she grabbed Sue Ellen by the hand and took her out of the classroom, "Sue Ellen can you _please_ not disrupt the class, I know Max is shorter than you I know it is probably some underlying condition that he is having; but please keep it to your self for now."

Sue Ellen chided her, "He looks like he is in the third grade! You don't even care! All you care about is everyone else! You don't even care about my wellbeing!"

Mrs. Armstrong sighed and interrupted her, "If there are any more outbursts like this from you, I want you to stay home tomorrow; you are obviously upset about something."

Sue Ellen was quite annoyed right now; her own mother didn't even care about what was happening…

They went back into the class, Sue Ellen felt even more miserable, and she was too upset to say anything to anyone because they would end up patronizing her and it would upset her even more.

Mrs. Armstrong had done the rounds passing out the tests… however there was a problem, Max didn't understand the math questions, he theoretically was 8 years old doing fifth grader work. This was a problem.

She had gone to get some third grade work for the 8 year old because he couldn't understand the fifth grade stuff.

Sue Ellen sighed sadly as she did her work, Max was age regressing, she was scared of what was going on right now. If she said anything she would get in trouble, if she didn't say anything, Max would be doomed.

Mrs. Armstrong sighed she didn't want to get rid of Max because he looked like a third grader, but many would question it and Max would most certainly object to be moved to a different class.

At recess Sue Ellen approached Fern in the hallway, "Why is Max age regressing?"

"I don't know…" Fern replied.

"That isn't a good enough answer, I seen too much horrible stuff go on, I am tired of all the lies and everything."

Within moments they had a physical confrontation, Max had split it up but Sue Ellen and Fern scratched Max in his arms and he was bleeding.

He had ran off holding his arms in pain as he was about to cry.

"Oops…" Both girls said nervously as they stopped in their tracks.

Max was almost crying and he had run into Mrs. Armstrong as she noticed the blood on his arms, "What happened?"

Max explained as he tried to stop the bleeding, "Fern and Sue Ellen were almost going to fight, I separated them."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, it was going to be a long day for her, and she took him to the nurse's office to see if the nurse could help him, "I will give you some Band-Aids…"

She took him to the nurse's office, and the nurse had applied the bandages, "There we go…"

Mrs. Armstrong sighed sadly, "I am sorry for their behavior…"

Max was a bit remorseful, "You don't need to apologize about it…"

"Sue Ellen is my daughter, Fern is… or used to be her best friend, I know Sue Ellen is upset about something, I am considering on letting her stay home from school tomorrow, she obviously needs a few days rest."

* * *

At the Crosswire mansion, it was the early evening, Buck had canisters of sleeping gas. They all walked there as it was a block away from the mansion, "Here we are I see the Plymouth Barracuda, the Aston Marton, a 1969 Ford Mustang, and a 1970 Rolls Royce Phantom."

Reno had the gas masks, they put them on, as Buck threw the sleeping gas canisters, into the lot, and within moments everyone in the lot was asleep.

They had started the cars, Mr. Frensky, everyone else sans Mr. Frensky stayed and waited to drive his minivan to follow them, and he crossed the cars off the list and drove towards Teal County.

Moss knew this was going to be a smooth operation, because the officers at the cruise night were asleep.

They had drove to the warehouse, Mr. Davenport was impressed, "Four cars in one night, so you guys have 52 left, plus the million I expect brought here with the last car."

They had all said nothing and left, Mr. Frensky was beside himself, they were about an hours walking distance from home, he called Mr. Frensky on his cell, and he just arrived in two seconds, they got back to Elwood City; to Crosswire Motors to conduct their next heist.

Reno had been spending so much time with these guys that he hadn't noticed his son's problem, but he didn't want Francine to die, despite they were breaking the law, "Mr. Frensky what is your next plan of action?"

Mr. Crosswire interrupted him, "My neighbors have a bunch of luxury and sporty cars, we can knock 10 off late at night, but can anyone disable car alarms?"

Buck stepped up to the plate, "I think I can, but we need to look for more classic cars, we could start stealing cars in Rockwood as that place has about five of the classic ones, he wouldn't notice, because we can cheat a little."

There was a knock at the door, "Come in!" Mr. Crosswire yelled.

It was Mr. Freeman, "Evening gents, I want to know if you guys were involved in a certain incident at the diner."

Reno took to the floor, "Nope, we were here arguing if a 2002 BMW could win in a street race with a 2002 Dodge Viper."

"No, it can't the BMW is a luxury car, they aren't built for speed, the Dodge Viper is of one of the fastest cars around, it can even outrun police cars. If I hear of any rumors that you guys have been stealing cars, we are going downtown," Freeman stated and he had left.

They were surprised the operating went so smoothly, they expected police cars to go after them; they had expected one of the cars to be damaged during transit.

* * *

Mr. Read was meeting Mr. Ratburn at the coffee shop in the evening, they were both drinking coffee, "Mr. Armstrong isn't working, that's a good thing, he mustn't know about us."

"Sooner or later someone is going to find out, are you prepared to give an explanation to your wife yet?" Mr. Ratburn asked as if he were talking to one of his students.

Mr. Read lowered his head and said nothing.

"I see you haven't come up with anything yet."

Mr. Armstrong was watching them suspiciously, thinking

_Mr. Read is spending a lot of time with Mr. Ratburn, he should get back to school the lunch break is nearly over.

* * *

_

The next day at school, Max now looked like he was seven years old, Sue Ellen ran to her mom she obviously was upset, Max was literally a second grader, all her mom said was, "I don't want to hear about it…" and she decided to take her daughter home; to get some much deserved rest.

Sue Ellen needed it, but she was still worried sick about Max.

Mrs. Armstrong went back to the school, she had taken notice of Max, and he had looked like a second grader, three years gone in three days.

He was wearing clothes suitable for his age.

Fern was denying any involvement as people were asking her, Prunella saw what happened; she had intervened, "Fern, can you please tell his parents what you did, Max is getting younger every day!"

"I can't…" Fern replied in a morose tone, "I don't want to get in trouble; I don't know what I did."

Mr. Kane overheard them both talking, "I bet I know."

They had walked to school, Max was playing with the second graders, he had no interest in hanging out with his friends at all, Mr. Kane had looked at him when a shocked look came on his clean shaven face, "Fern, I am picking up that you did a age regression curse on him, he is seven years old today, by next Tuesday, he will be one year old."

To Be Continued.


	23. Kwyjibo

Fern was shocked; tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the oak wand in her knapsack, she pulled it out, "I can't undo the spell, I don't know how to…"

All Mr. Kane had to ask was, "Where did you get _that_ from?"

"Terra, Sue Ellen and I were stranded there, we were both taken care of in separate villages, the Dark Mages gave me this wand as a gift for helping them out around the village, Sue Ellen which I am totally embarrassed of right now, lived in the mog village, she… let me put it in kind words, lost touch with civilization right at the moment she was in the village. She was wearing leaves! Carrying a slingshot around!"

"Wow," Buster replied as he overheard Fern's outbursts, "Got any photos?"

Fern sighed, "Buster…"

Buster walked away.

"Where is Sue Ellen now?" Prunella asked curiously as she looked around for the cat girl.

All Fern said was, "Mrs. Armstrong took her home, she insisted on it, apparently because of this Sue Ellen was really stressed out to get a few days of well deserved rest."

Prunella had some insight, "She needs it, if what you are saying happened, happened, then she could use a few days rest, I could notice her stress levels are through the roof, keeping her home from school can calm her down because she won't obsess over Max's condition."

Mrs. Armstrong just came from the parking lot hearing the conversation, "I will be sure to leave her at home for a few days, I sometimes find it a struggle raising her, she needs a few days rest before something bad happens she thought I was going to die because she couldn't believe me, so I had to go to the doctor and he assured her."

The Brain had joined the conversation, "I honestly think Sue Ellen is right, she needs to realize this, and she can't be patronized by anyone about what her thoughts and feelings are on this."

"Alan, you have some very good insight, but I told Sue Ellen to stay home from school, I may find myself disagreeing with her and she will get upset."

Buster had rejoined the conversation; "Is it true that you are related to Max?"

Fern sighed, "Shut up Buster."

"Fern!" Mrs. Armstrong yelled in shock, she turned to Buster, "Yes, he is a distant cousin of mine."

"Does that mean Sue Ellen is an alien?"

Mrs. Armstrong looked at the simple rabbit boy, "I wouldn't go as far as saying that… Max was born on a planet called Tigris his ancestor had twins, one lived on Earth, married my ancestor, the other one lived on Tigris, and married someone on there, so Sue Ellen and I are part Tigrisian."

Mr. Kane was amazed; amazed that he didn't know that about Sue Ellen and her mother, "I didn't know that."

She continued to talk, "Sue Ellen and I were born in Elwood City by the way. My husband was born in Crown City."

Buster of course not the real intelligent one of the group had his say, "Can I go online to my blog saying that Sue Ellen is an alien?"

"If you want a detention, but can you please be nice to her? She has been under a lot of stress this week and I don't want her to get even more upset than she already is; it is only Wednesday, I don't want her to come to me saying that you posted something online about her."

Prunella chuckled, "Buster, I think you should focus on something else, why don't you talk to Arthur?"

Mrs. Armstrong looked at Buster, "Or keep my mother company, people told me you took quite a shine to her."

"Arthur has been busy with Muffy," Buster whined, "He will hit me!" and added, "I don't know."

Fern chuckled at Buster's strong lack of confidence, "No, your mom probably hit you when you were younger because you always misbehaved."

"Fern shut up!" Buster yelled didn't need Fern's attitude; he went to see Arthur, he was sitting with Muffy, she was upset, "I can't believe someone kidnapped Francine!"

"Calm down, Mr. Frensky, your father, and his friends are working diligently on getting her back…"

Arthur's voice soon turned quiet, "They are stealing cars in exchange for her, and I heard it from Mr. Crosswire himself; why would there be an increase of auto theft?"

Muffy was shocked, "Don't say that about my father!"

"Aliens?" Buster asked.

Arthur sighed, "Why don't you and Fern do some detective work?"

"I don't want Fern's attitude, if I do it and it prevents Francine from coming back then I will get in trouble."

"Yes you will…" Muffy explained by showing her fist and she chuckled, "That story your grandmother told about showing you how to sit on a swing and you crying because you didn't know how to get down are priceless, those are the memories that last a lifetime…"

Buster was shocked, "I was five years old! And I don't you mention that again! If you excuse me I am going to sit on the swing."

"Do you need help getting off when you are done using them?" Arthur joked.

D.W. overheard and she just laughed at him.

Mrs. Armstrong went to talk with Buster, "Buster, I think you should, it will enrich your life if you do something, and she won't bite."

Buster had no choice "As long as I get to play scrabble with Muffy, Binky and Fern."

"Ok…"

They went back into the classroom; Mrs. Armstrong called Muffy, Binky and Fern, for the game as she went to the teachers lounge.

Buster had the one in a million word, the one word that he had gotten before which was just a mixed up bag of letters and those letters were 'Kwyjibo'

His eyes lit up, and he had a huge grin, Fern noticed him, "Looks like Buster has a good word."

Buster put it down, "K-w-y-j-i-b-o, so that means, that I get 26 points, plus the j for double letter, which brings me up to 34, plus triple word score which brings me up to 102 plus 50 for using all of my letters and now I have 152 points, looks like I win."

As Buster got up Muffy grabbed his arm, "Tell me what it means…"

Buster fumbled with an answer, "A North American ape, the older ones are balding, no chin…"

"And a short temper…" Binky added as Buster ran.

Muffy chased Buster and all he said was, "Uh-oh Kwijibo on the loose!"

Until she caught up with him, "I will show you a kwijibo!"

Within moments Mrs. Armstrong came back into the room, Buster looked terrible as if he was in a nasty fight, "Hospital please…" and he passed out.

She looked at her classmates, "Does anyone know what happened here?"

Behind Mrs. Armstorng's back, Muffy leered at Binky and Fern making silent threats of violence to them, "No he was doing some sort of trick on the desks and fell."

Mrs. Armstrong didn't believe them, "I will take Buster and he should tell us his side of the story."

Mrs. Baxter revived Buster and she taken him out of the office, Muffy went to her locker which was a few lockers behind from where Mrs. Armstrong was standing, "Ok, Buster, what happened?"

Muffy was doing some more silent threats which caused Buster to lie, "I was being stupid… I did a lame dare."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "Buster you need to be more careful…"

* * *

Sue Ellen was at home with her father, he was slightly caught off guard that she was home that he nearly spilt out coffee, but he decided to make the best of it, "Sue Ellen, I am not impressed your mother sent you home from school but let's make the best of it ok?"

"…'k," She sat down with him across from the kitchen table.

She wasn't too happy that she was sent home, she thought her mom was the only person she could look up to, was Sue Ellen really that much of a pain?

She had decided to ask her father, "Do you think I am well…" her cheeks turned an embarrassing red, "A pain?"

Mr. Armstrong gave her a sad look, "What makes you think that?"

She was almost going to cry, "Like you and mom have tolerated so much, that I feel… that I am a burden on you both…"

"Don't say that; what my mother always said was 'when life gives you a lemon, you make lemonade.'" He stated as he sipped his coffee.

She rolled her eyes indigently, "But there is one thing in life that I learned, to try and have enough patience to deal with a Baxter."

"Buster has been bothering you again?"

"Well he said some things…" She paused, "And I got upset with him, I'd thought after two years of knowing him he would show… or have enough tolerance to meet different people, he thinks that Max is an alien, Leena an alien, Moss an alien, Buck an alien the list goes on…"

Mr. Armstrong tried to make some conversation, "Leena, the half bear rabbit girl right?"

"Yea, how is she doing?"

"I rarely talk to her; I guess she is doing ok…"

"I spoke with her mother at the coffee shop; she seems to be doing well, why don't you spend some time with Leena or something?"

Sue Ellen didn't say another word.

Mr. Armstrong had a good suggestion, "What's wrong? If you are having problems with some classmates talk to others you don't normally talk to, as it would be good to break the ice."

Someone was knocking at the door, it was Muffy, Sue Ellen was shocked, and Muffy was a bit shocked for her actions, "Guess what I did?"

Sue Ellen sighed; it was obviously going to be dumb.

"I beat up Buster…" Muffy admitted as Sue Ellen was shocked, "I got to get back to school."

Sue Ellen sighed as Muffy got into the limo and Bailey drove off.

* * *

After school Buster took a deep breath, Mrs. Armstrong called Mr. Baxter to tell that he was going to spend some time with her mother.

Mrs. Knight was reading the paper, when her daughter dropped him off, "Hi Christine."

"Hi, how is it going?" Mrs. Armstrong asked.

"Good, your father is out back," her mother replied as an older cat man who was her father joined him.

"Christine, I didn't expect you to come, how are you?" Mr. Knight asked, then looked at Buster, "Who is this?"

"He is a student from my class; he wants to spend some time with you both."

Mrs. Knight smiled at Buster, "I see no problem with that."

"I don't know…" Mr. Knight replied nervously.

"Oh Hank…" His wife chided him.

"Buster is a good kid, he is all about good behavior," Mrs. Armstrong explained, "Thanks for letting him keep you both company I believe you both could change his life."

She drove off.

"Buster, would you like to see that news paper that I was talking about?"

"Yea!" Buster replied as he was excited.

She went inside the small cozy house and found the paper, and they had both read it.

As two hours had passed Mr. Baxter and Carla drove by, "Buster, it is time to go."

Mrs. Armstrong's parents came up, in particular her father, "Your son is very nice, and he kept us great company, and tell him he is welcome here anytime."

"Thanks."

They had driven off, "That was very kind of you Buster." Carla admitted.

----

Mr. Frensky and company was looking for some cars, "Ok we have 8 cars down, we need to seriously think of our options here, my neighbor has a few of the cars he collects the ones from the James Hound movies, we need to steal them at night."

Buck stroked his goatee, "The police are starting to get onto us; if we steal more cars, and of course he will get in touch with higher law enforcement."

"I had seen one of the cars on the list, it is the rarest of the rare, the Fiat."

"Where?"

"This guy has some cars from different countries; we could go there and steal it."

Buck, Moss and Mr. Frensky did the honors and drove to the place.

To Be Continued.


	24. Snakes In A Car

Both aardvark men had gotten out of their vehicle, this place was really secure, Moss and Buck snuck past cameras, disconnecting them. Moss put a sleeper hold on a security guard, as did Buck.

Within moments they had found the Fiat, and essentially drove off with it; however there was a hissing sound and a rattling sound.

"Oh god!" Buck screamed as he saw a rattlesnake slither across the dashboard.

"What?"

"There is a snake in here! I hate snakes!" Buck said as he started weaving through traffic in fears that it would strike and he would be poisoned.

Buck continued driving, he was still weaving through traffic, Freeman had seen the car, and he figured they were drunk. Good thing the windows were tinted.

"Hurry up!" Buck screamed, "The police are after us!"

Moss had grabbed the snake at his body and tail; he rolled down the window to let it out. Buck's heart was beating really fast, he looked like he had seen a ghost, "I-I am afraid of snakes, if it had bit us then we both would have died… I was poisoned by a snake when I was a kid… I nearly died."

Moss figured something, "Remember when the Armstrong's were doing some entertaining and we were both there?"

"Yea…"

Flashback scene

Mr. Moss and Mr. Vargas were enjoying the entertainment The Armstrong's set out for them and the other company including the Read's, the Walter's the Crosswrie's and other adults.

The Snake Charmer was charming a rattlesnake until he had struck a wrong note, it started hissing and his struck going at Moss, he yelled, "BRING IT ON!" and sliced the snakes belly open with a Swiss Army knife.

End Flashback scene

Buck chuckled, "The snake charmer wasn't too impressed."

"I am figuring this is the snake charmers car, the snake must have escaped its cage…"

They had almost hit a car, but managed not to, they picked up the speed as the cop car was closing in, Freeman had cursed and was catching up to it, but still the rules of engagement stated he couldn't go outside the county to capture a perpetrator.

They had made it to the warehouse; Reno came with the Lotus Esprit, "Man these are some hot cars!"

They had left; now the statistics were 50 cars left, cops starting to get suspicious, and a near death experience.

Mr. Frensky and company went back home, Freeman pulled them over, "What are you guys doing in Teal County?"

"Nothing." Mr. Crosswire stated.

He looked at Mr. Frensky, "No illegal activities? Nothing to do with your daughter's disappearance? Not being involved with some certain cars being stolen?"

This had annoyed Mr. Crosswire a tiny bit, but he kept a straight face, he did the talking, "No; everything is cool, we were checking out some of the classic cars in Rockwood."

"Ok, but if I see you guys are stealing cars, then you all are under arrest, I just lost another car tonight, that is 10 in less than 3 days." He shined a flashlight in Mr. Crosswire's face, "We will see that if you are taking the cars; I will be sure that you are put next to a man in there named 'Sally' by choice and another one who will have his way with you named Bubba! And Sally will be like," he done an impersonation of a very butch woman, "Hey Ed! Do you like big women?"

"Eww…" Moss said as he was grossed out.

Freeman cleared his throat, "That is what will happen if you guys are responsible, I am not responsible for what happens to you guys in prison if some big guy named Bubba tosses all your salads, and then it would be your problem not mine, have a nice evening gentlemen."

Mr. Freeman stepped away from the Lincoln and went back home, Mr. Frensky, Buck, Moss and Reno were laughing at Mr. Crosswire.

"Man if you were caught, this 'Sally' guy is going to make you his b!tch" Buck joked, "Be sure not to drop the soap if you we get caught or bad thins will happen."

The next day at school; Sue Ellen wasn't there, it was good for her to have a days rest she needed it, Max looked like he was six years old, D.W.'s age it was Thursday, he was now four years younger.

D.W. was playing with Max, as Mrs. Clarkson watched in disbelief, "I can't believe this, my son is six years old; he was 10 on Sunday!"

Mrs. Armstrong sighed as they watched them both play, "At least they aren't arguing like usual, D.W. and him would fight like cats and dogs…" she then lowered her head in embarrassment, "Just like Fern and Sue Ellen"

"I hope someone finds it in their heart to fix what happened to him," she paused, then asked "Fern and Sue Ellen are having problems?"

"Yes… almost every time I turn around they always seem to be arguing over something."

Fern heard the conversation, she was guilt ridden, Sue Ellen seemed emotionally fragile, Fern couldn't tell Mrs. Clarkson what she accidentally did; she didn't want to get in trouble.

Mr. Kane saw Fern sitting under a tree… alone, "What's wrong?"

And Fern's excuse was, "I can't tell them, I am afraid I'll get in trouble."

"Well, I have done some research and you are supposed to let the curse take its course, because if you restore what lost years he has, then it will mess things up."

"I understand, if I try… or attempt to try, Max will end up probably older than he actually was."

Mr. Kane sighed, "It would do some great justice if you could go back to the village and talk to the elders explaining what happened."

"I don't have a way there?"

"What about that muscle bound aardvark man?"

"Harry Moss?"

"Yea,"

"I can't…"

Mr. Kane sighed, Fern was of course afraid to ask, "Let me guess, he is busy."

"No, he has been so secretive lately, that he is hanging out with Mr. Crosswire, Mr. Frensky, Reno and Buck."

He went head level with her, "Let me be honest with you, they are under investigation by the police for auto theft, and I am heading up the stories about the cars being stolen, Sue Ellen's mom is upset because her car is stolen, she told me she was crying all night…"

"I can't do anything right…" Fern sighed sadly, knowing Max will be five years old tomorrow.

Mr. Kane was quite sympathetic, "Don't say that, you just need to make some better choices in life, think before you do…"

Fern of course lowered her head, "Every time I do that, something bad happens…"

"You think something bad happens, but entirely it benefits all," This was all of Mr. Kane's insight.

"It isn't benefiting Sue Ellen, it upsets me Sue Ellen is being hostile against people."

"Just talk to her, I am sure she feels the same way you do."

Meanwhile Molly was talking to Muffy, "I have seen what you did to Buster…"

"You don't know the half of it," Muffy admitted firmly, "You should have seen what he did."

"I was at the door watching you punch and kick him as hard as you could…" Molly replied, "You were like his mother…"

"He did it the last time we played scrabble!" Muffy complained, "But now I got my revenge…"

Buster walked by as Molly and Muffy looked at him.

At Sue Ellen's house she slept in until 8:30, her mom of course didn't wake her up because and solely because she didn't want her at school, she went downstairs and her father was finishing up breakfast, "What should we do today?"

Sue Ellen was about to speak, "I…"

Mr. Armstrong reassured her, "Don't worry I already dropped Gary to your grandma's."

Sue Ellen sighed sadly as her eyes looked like they were moist with tears, "You don't want to do stuff with me… I am having problems with everyone…"

"Don't say that…" Mr. Armstrong said as he tried to comfort his daughter, "I know when we first came here; you found it easy to make friends, what is the problem now?"

Sue Ellen let out a pathetic sob, "Ever since mom started teaching my class, I've been targeted by bullies, got my lunch money stolen…"

Mr. Armstrong lent a good explanation, "She thought by teaching the class it would be good for your social development, but it really isn't turning out that way…"

Sue Ellen was shocked, "Is that why she is teaching?"

"_Your_ mother home schooled you when I was a diplomat, she thought and saw how you were in the fourth grade and figured a job teaching would be good for her, so Mr. Haney decided to hire her as the fifth grade teacher because she felt that she could make a difference in you and your classmates lives," he explained, "But you seem to be taking it for granted, your mother cares about you…"

"Then WHY did she keep me home from school!" Sue Ellen asked as she was quite upset.

To Be Continued.


	25. Will You Be My Friend?

Mr. Armstrong was on the spot now, "It was mainly because of Max and the physical altercation you had with Fern, she didn't want to see anyone get hurt…" Her father was poured another cup of coffee and had toasted a poppy seed bagel he slathered butter on it, "Let's have some breakfast…"

Sue Ellen was slightly satisfied with the answer and now she had decided to have some Corn Pops, she poured the milk into her cereal, and poured herself a glass or orange juice, and she sat down and ate her cereal.

"Your mother told me to keep you inside today," Mr. Armstrong added as he sipped his coffee, "I am sorry about it, but I don't want you to get in trouble."

Sue Ellen sighed; it was a nice day outside, "I am worried about him, I think…"

Mr. Armstrong interrupted her, "He is fine, it isn't like he is dying, I know technically we are related to him but don't get worried sick over him…"

"He has yet to experience life here…" Sue Ellen explained sadly, "He could get hurt!" her eyes were moist with tears, "I don't want to see him hurt…"

"If his condition continues, his mother will pull him out of school tomorrow."

Sue Ellen couldn't accept the fact anymore; Max was getting younger every day, it was to her scary… very scary…

This had stopped her, she didn't want to get into trouble, and so she just sat there eating her cereal… and her emotions.

Mr. Armstrong smiled at her, "If you do your homework I will let you go online all day today."

Sue Ellen smiled, but passed as she realized or thought she realized what he was doing, "So you don't have to deal with me? You don't want to do anything with me after all?"

He explained himself, "I didn't mean it like that; I just think you need to relax a little."

She corrected herself, "I am sorry; I am just so worried about him."

"Perhaps we can watch the Today Show and Maury, and if you are good we can watch Passions."

Sue Ellen smiled at her father, "Really?"

"We rarely do anything together; I want to do some stuff with you."

She lent a good suggestion, "Actually why don't we go to the park?"

"Your mother will not be too impressed…" Sue Ellen lowered her head sadly, until he said, "Unless we don't tell her…"

After they finished breakfast they pretty much started their day bundling up, it was snowing lightly, and they made their day right with a trip to the park.

Sue Ellen and her father sat at the park bench which was clear of snow, they were both relaxing, "Thanks…"

Of course she was feeling a bit better, but she was still eating her emotions…

They of course were sitting in the park talking as they had seen two people at another bench kissing each other on the lips… it was Mr. Ratburn and Mr. Read.

Mr. Armstrong looked shocked, and then he cleared his mind, a bitter northern wind bit at his nose, "Let's go home and have some hot chocolate."

He couldn't believe what he saw; Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn were kissing, as it must have been about 10 AM the park wasn't too far from the school one could walk there in five minutes from the school and back.

* * *

Mr. Frensky was at car number 11 and 12 again, when Moss ran in, "Some of the classic models shown are being showcased at the Ford, Dodge and Chrysler dealerships.

This was a four man operation, plus driver to take them home, there were two Fords on the list he needed, a classic Dodge and a classic Chrysler on the list.

The four men dressed all the same in business suits walked towards the dealerships, the place was busy, but it was risky now, police wanted to root them up, however it was not as easy as expected, they seemed like masterminds in the art of auto theft. They weren't stupid enough to take them when people were around, so they had decided to wait until people had left and the dealerships closed up shop for the evening to make their move.

The owners of the car dealerships left their place of business and the four men had done their business, driving to Teal County was easy, the county line was just a stones throw away; by the time Freeman would have arrived to the dealerships, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it because they had crossed the county line.

"14 cars," Davenport said, "You guys are working fast, and you have almost 25 of the cars on my list."

They ignored the hick and left.

----

That evening Sue Ellen was allowed to go out, despite being well too upset, she needed to attempt to make some new friends, anyone she had talked to… in her mind she had seemed to ruin their lives.

She decided on to go to Leena's, the half bear half rabbit girl was relaxing as she had worn a nice pink dress, "Oh, hi Sue Ellen, what's new?"

Sue Ellen thought it was gutsy to ask, she lowered her head in sadness, "Will you well uh… be my friend?"

"What happened with Fern?'

"You saw what happened the other day, Fern and I almost fought, but we accidentally hurt poor Max…" Sue Ellen explained as she fell to her knees and started to cry.

"Something tells me you are close to him…"

The cat girl continued to sob, "I tend to send everyone on a road to disaster…"

"That isn't true…"

Sue Ellen started to calm down, "When was one time I managed not to ruin anyone's lives?"

"How about when you and Steve were both kidnapped?"

Sue Ellen moaned, "I'd rather not talk about it…"

"You sent his father to jail…"

The cat girl lowered her head sadly, "But he is out on good behavior."

The half bear rabbit girl continued to offer some nice insight, "How about when you saved your mothers life when she got kidnapped?"

Sue Ellen sighed as she was upset with the circumstances, "Going off planet in disguise was far from what I can an adventure…"

"You saved your mother, Max brought justice to those who were suffering…"

Sue Ellen didn't say another word, "Should I see if George wants to do something?"

"I guess…"

The two girls had walked over to George's house; the moose boy was watching TV, when Sue Ellen knocked at the door, he was a bit nervous to see her, "What brings you both here?"

Sue Ellen swallowed nervously, she was in fear of rejection, "George will you be my friend?"

George was shocked, "We already are…"

"I don't hang around with you enough," She explained, "Fern and everyone else hates me."

"They don't hate you…"

"Then why did my mom make me stay home from school?" Sue Ellen asked as she was almost crying.

"She felt that you were going to hurt Fern and disrupt the class because of Max's condition, it isn't normal how he is well… age regressing."

In an almost tear filled voice she hugged him, "Thank you for understanding…"

* * *

Mr. Armstrong was quiet, too quiet for Mrs. Armstrong's tastes; she noticed something was up, "What's wrong."

"I saw Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn kissing…" He replied in an emotionless voice.

"David Read and Nigel Ratburn?"

"Yes, I don't know if Mrs. Read knows about this yet or not."

"Best not to tell her, she will get upset…"

Mr. Armstrong needed to tell someone, he was tempted to…

At home the next day, Sue Ellen was still upset with her fathers nefarious comments about well her so called 'social development' to her it wasn't fair, this was no vacation away from school it was far from it, it was getting homework every day.

She sat down having breakfast and she sighed.

"Why don't we go for a walk?" Mr. Armstrong asked curiously.

After they ate breakfast, they went for a nice relaxing walk, until they had seen Mr. Read go into a stag shop.

"Let's go do some grocery shopping…" Mr. Armstrong stressed, as he of course didn't want Sue Ellen to be exposed to that type of stuff, "We need some of the essentials."

They went to the store, and of course Buster was there with Carla, "Buster, shouldn't you be in school?"

"I just had a dentist and doctor's appointment…" Buster lowered his head.

Carla sighed sadly looking at her obviously upset step-son, "Apparently someone beat him up pretty bad yesterday and no one is stepping forward whoever beat him up chipped his tooth and left pretty good bruises on his body."

They had done their shopping together and went out of the store, "I can't believe it, I don't know who did this to him…"

"I think I know who…"

Muffy walked out of the store and leered at Sue Ellen and the monkey girl was making threats of violence to her as she figured the cat girl was going to tell.

Sue Ellen had a change of heart, "Actually… I don't," and she added as she looked at her father, "I of course wasn't there…"

After school, Max was five years old, a bit shorter than D.W. now, Mrs. Armstrong could feel the sadness build up within her, her favorite car was gone, Max was getting younger every day, Sue Ellen was home from school for some well deserved rest.

She sighed as Max's mom dropped him off at school to be put in the kindergartener's class.

Muffy came talking to her like all miss innocent, "Mrs. Armstrong, why did they take Francine?"

"…There is someone out there who is gutsy and wants an easy fix for money… and cars, I lost my Ferrari, it was my prized possession; every week I would wash it, wax it, protect it from rain, keep it in the garage during the winter, clean everything up so it was in pristine condition… I loved that car…"

Muffy of course asked, "Think someone will get it back for you?"

"I hope so, having one vehicle right now is hard, I would at days drive the Ferrari to work and cover it so the elements wouldn't get at it…"

"You really_ do_ love that car…"

Buster came forward, "Did aliens take your car?"

Arthur complained about Busters theory, "Buster!" this wasn't the time or the place to throw wild accusations of aliens stealing hot cars.

Buster sighed, "Mr. Kane our old teacher is doing news reports on the stolen cars, it is up to 14 now; and 0 arrests."

Arthur made an observant comment, "Apparently Mr. Manino lost his car."

"The cruise night was a disaster as well, four cars were stolen while… believe it or not everyone was asleep," Buster commented.

Fern walked towards them saying, "I think Mr. Crosswire is stealing the cars to get Francine back."

Muffy gave Fern a dirty look, she talked just above a whisper, "That isn't funny!"

"I didn't say it was…"

Buster laughed at Fern's assumption, "That is a dumb assumption, if he were to do that, and then the police would be on him like a donut."

Mr. Freeman the bulldog man walking down the street poked Buster in the stomach as he heard that comment, "Very funny tubby, if anything I could accuse you of stealing the cars and you being sent to juvie but your mother would kill me, and if you were sent there she would beat you until you were black and blue. 14 cars stolen in five days… it is sick, I will talk to those guys again, because I know if they are stealing the cars, they are going to be making license plates for cars… for the rest of their lives."

Buster chuckled, "Don't forget Bubba…"

"Ah yes, he is anticipating the time when he has his way with whoever is the culprit in these crimes of passion."

Carla gave Mr. Freeman a dirty look as she walked by, "Are you giving my step-son bad ideas?"

"No mam…"

"Good," she turned to Buster as she forgot to tell him something, "Carlos and Mora are guests for dinner tonight."

To Be Continued.


	26. Buster Attempts To Solve His Problems

Authors Note: Now I don't know about Mr. Honey Bunny, if no one notices this Simpsons reference there must be something wrong...

----

Cars 15 and upward were next, Mr. Frensky was at the 25 mark, he, Buck, Moss and Reno and Mr. Crosswire, had driven to Teal County to steal a few cars, there were some classic models in Rockwood, and all Oliver had said was, "We will cheat a little."

But the risks were lower, because Teal County was much poorer than Azure County, there were only 10 officers in Rockwood. Compared to about 30 or 40 in Elwood City.

They had stolen three cars before law enforcement was catching up to them, they managed to get back over to Azure county, this now was a game of Russian roulette, they were 17 cars down, the odds of getting caught were higher now because police forces on both sides of the county line were going to be after them.

They went home for the day; they couldn't go back through the usual route Rockwood, because the police would be waiting at the county line.

--------------

The next day was Saturday, Max was four years old now, and he was still age regressing, "Mommy, why am I getting younger every day?" Mrs. Clarkson started to cry, she didn't know what was wrong… or why, Fern hadn't summoned the strength to tell her what happened, "Don't cry mommy."

Meanwhile Sue Ellen was at home not horribly set to face the outside world, when her mother had taken notice, "It is a nice day out, why don't you do something with your friends?"

"What friends?" Sue Ellen asked rudely, "I ruined my friendship with Fern; if I go out I might as well end it with everyone else."

"Don't say that, I know I hadn't really given you a break, but being a teacher is something I want to do…" Mrs. Armstrong explained, "My brother is a professor, my dad was a guidance councilor at the high school then he started to become a grill chef, and I…" but she was suddenly interrupted.

"So you could keep an eye on me?"

"I didn't say that; truthfully it was mainly about your social development…"

"It didn't matter!" Sue Ellen yelled.

"But Sue Ellen, you had problems back in the third grade, even some more in the fourth…"

Sue Ellen argued the facts, "But I recovered from them; I didn't dwell on it too much."

"And in the fifth it has started getting to the point that you needed some professional help, before you do anything else I want you to go out there with some friends of yours, and have fun…"

"But…" Sue Ellen sighed as her mother told her to put on her jacket and make her leave the house and she had walking to the park with Leena and George, she had seen Fern with Prunella. It was snowing lightly.

Leena seemed a bit distant.

She walked towards Fern; all Fern said was, "What's wrong? Aren't you eating right?"

Sue Ellen wasn't she was obsessed about Max; all she said was, in a morose tone was, "I hate you…"

Fern knew Sue Ellen would say it sooner or later, she sighed sadly, and she lowered her head. "…I know…"

Sue Ellen fell to her knees as she almost started to cry, "Please help Max, I am begging you!"

"I am doing all I can."

Sue Ellen left in tears while George and Leena followed her.

Meanwhile Muffy and Buster joined the conversation.

"Can that thing find out where Francine is?" Muffy asked curiously.

"I don't think so…"

"The wand is so cool!" Prunella said happily, "I wish I could have it…"

"I don't know if you should or not, I need to use it to try and help Max."

Prunella sighed, "We _should_ leave things of mysterious power alone."

"Can I talk to her about you know who?" Buster asked curiously, "Perhaps we could animate _April…" _Buster paused, "Is animate the right word?"

"_Resurrect_ April?" Fern asked and at the same time correct Buster, "How asinine… Why don't you talk to the one who created her?"

Buster was now put on the spot as everyone looked at him; he just chuckled nervously and pointed at over at an inanimate object, "Look over there!"

Everyone of course didn't fall for that.

"Well should we tell her my suggestion? Or can I talk to her about _you know who?_"

"If you want her to be even more upset," Arthur warned.

"Isn't there a heart in your body?" Muffy asked, "There just went a girl who had lost her best friend and presumably other friends…"

"She will find a new best friend," Buster chuckled as he looked at Fern.

"Don't look at me," Fern replied, "You heard what she said."

"I will try…" Arthur stated, "Unless someone wants Buster to…"

Buster sighed, "I manage to make her upset every time I make contact with her."

"Then it is settled, I will see what I can do," Arthur regressed as he left to go and see her.

Buster stayed, "I was going to see if we could deal with this Kwyjibo problem peacefully . . . but instead I just ripped the head off of Mr. Honey Bunny!" and he snickered evilly.

Muffy sighed, "Uh… that was your cherished childhood toy."

Buster shrieked, "Oh Mr. Honey Bunny…" and he was kissing the decapitated stuffed rabbit.

"Why did you do Kwyjibo?"

"Well because you act like one… most of the time…" Buster admitted, "Besides, you chipped my tooth yesterday, and I had to go to the doctors, you owe me $300 dollars!"

"I don't owe you anything!" Muffy exclaimed as she soon found herself strangling Buster.

Buster within moments had hit her in the arm as hard as he could, this had stopped Muffy in her tracks, she was shocked, Buster was shocked he looked like he was going to die right now, he had punched Muffy, and she had ran off crying.

"Uh oh…" Buster thought.

-------------------------

Sue Ellen went to her room, she was home, obviously upset at what just happened, it was better off she didn't see Max right now.

Mrs. Armstrong walked into her room, "You know you can go and see your friends."

Sue Ellen had her face on her pillow, "I don't want to."

"What's wrong?"

"Fern and I aren't friends anymore… This is just a repeat when dad was a diplomat, I had to leave my friends behind and start all over again!"

"What happened?"

"She won't admit that she did something to Max."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "It might be some disease he is having… I don't know," she had left the room.

Sue Ellen just sat in her room doing homework. She locked the door; she pretty much had enough for today.

Back downstairs, Arthur was at the door, "Mrs. Armstrong is Sue Ellen here?"

"She is, but she locked herself in her room, I am finding it harder to reason with her, you can try but I am not guaranteeing she will come out."

She sent him upstairs and he knocked on the door, "Mom, I said I wanted to be left alone!"

"It is me," Arthur announced, "I want to well do something with you…"

She didn't respond… just instantly, "I am interested, what do you have in mind?"

"You have DDR right, why don't you be my partner in that?"

Sue Ellen unlocked the door, and they both played DDR for a bit, Sue Ellen did feel a little bit better.

Mrs. Armstrong looked at Arthur who was enjoying his time with Sue Ellen, she thought to herself…

_Poor Arthur, Dave is cheating on Jane with Nigel…_

Soon the phone had ringed, it was Leena, and Mrs. Armstrong answered, "Hello? Ok, I see, it is so sad to see you and your family leave, I will be sure to tell Sue Ellen."

Mrs. Armstrong went to see her daughter, "Sue Ellen, Leena and her family are moving to Phoenix."

Sue Ellen sighed, she just got to knowing her, and she figured she shouldn't be too close to anyone else, but at least she had George.

----------------------

Mrs. Clarkson was at the grocery store preparing for the coming days, she had bought pull-ups, diapers, baby food and other baby supplies as this was going to be the harsh reality. Max was definitely age regressing, he had sat in the grocery cart looking at the stuff curiously with his bright blue eyes.

This had saddened her; she knew she was going to use the items because it was literally bound to happen.

She sighed as she went through the checkout, and had gone home, she said to herself, "Reno still not home, he's been hanging out with Mr. Crosswire, Buck and Harry too much."

She placed Max in front of the TV so he could watch Mary Moo Cow.

----------------------------

Buck and Reno heard rumors of cars 18 and 19 being located in a parking garage.

Moss drove them both there, it was the same scenario, they took the two sports cars; the windows were tinted, Moss was parked down the street, and drove them out of the garage… This time it proved to be a challenge, because two police cars blocked the exit of the parking garage, Moss slammed his fist on the dashboard and cursed, "I hope they both get out…"

Buck and Reno had backed up, and drove to the top level of the parking garage, they had found something that could be used as a ramp, if done correctly and in the names of physics; they could land on the street flawlessly with no damage.

The height of the top level to street level was about 40 feet; they had both drove towards the ramp at top speed.

To Be Continued.


	27. Buck And Reno Are Insane

Authors note: April appears next chapter!

---

Both cars had flew off the top of the building; Moss looked on in horror as he took a picture of this amazing feat, as both cars had landed beside him a few feet away from each other and sped off. Moss followed quickly; the police were at the top level of the parking garage. He was surprised the cars didn't fall apart from the landing.

Freeman and Rider looked on from the top of the parking garage, "Those bastards…"

"We will catch them…."

"These perps had stolen 19 cars already; what is their agenda?"

"I thought it was 16…"

"No, Reports from Teal County indicate that a few cars were stolen from there."

When they got to the warehouse no police were following them, Moss got out with Mr. Frensky, "That was awesome!"

"When I used to work for a secret organization, one is supposed to learn how to do that." Buck replied.

"I always did insane car stunts in my younger days, until the police arrested me and I was forced to teach people about unsafe motor vehicle use…" Reno stated, "This brought back memories of my youth."

Mr. Davenport sighed, "Yea… yea… spare the small talk and get me my other 41 cars and the briefcase."

"Keep your pants on tubby; we will get your cars."

They had left… it was all in a days work, a hard nearly weeks work, 19 cars stolen, 2 near death experiences, 2 insane stunts, and almost 5 close calls the authorities. They were pushing their luck now.

* * *

The next day was a week since the curse started; Max was three years old, Mrs. Clarkson had just changed him right after he wet his pants, he wasn't toilet trained anymore, he had a much smaller vocabulary now as well.

Max had a pull-up, a pair of shorts his size and short sleeve shirt; he needed the pull-up as he wet his pants from time to time this proved to be more challenging now because come Tuesday, Max would only be 1 year old. Mrs. Clarkson was afraid… afraid that she would lose her son. Or start doing his first 10 years all over again.

She sighed sadly as he was watching the kids shows on the public broadcasting station, Reno was asleep, he had a late night stealing a car, but his wife didn't know that, he always came up with lies that he was playing Texas Hold 'em with Mr. Crosswire, she didn't approve of gambling, to her she felt he was gambling away his families future.

She sighed sadly as Mrs. Armstrong came by to see how Max was doing, Sue Ellen wasn't to come because she of course would get upset and one thing would lead to another and most likely Fern or Sue Ellen would probably have a physical altercation.

"How is he doing?" Mrs. Armstrong asked curiously as he looked at the three year old tiger boy sitting on his mother's knee.

Mrs. Clarkson sighed sadly as he rubbed his head, "He is getting younger everyday…"

"The Read family may have some of their old baby stuff, like a crib and stroller," Mrs. Armstrong stated.

Mrs. Armstrong had gone to the Read house, Mrs. Read had answered the door, "Jane do you have Kate's crib, baby carriage and diaper bag still?"

"Yea, Dave and I were thinking of having another child, but we don't have the money for it."

"Can I take the stuff?"

Mrs. Read was caught off guard, "Sure; we won't need it anytime soon."

Mrs. Armstrong with the help of her husband loaded the items into the minivan and drove to the Clarkson's, they set up the crib in his room, the baby carriage was put in the front closet and Max's mom put the diapers in the diaper bag, she knew she was going to need them, "Thanks." She sighed as Max had a wet spot on his pants, he wet his pants again.

* * *

Sue Ellen on the other hand was at home, Mrs. Armstrong didn't want her to come over because obviously she would get too upset, she stayed home still upset over well the course of the week because her own mother didn't side with her in this, it was annoying, it was aggravating as well because she felt she had no one to confide in, this wasn't fair to her.

She had turned to Arthur, "Why is the world such a cruel unforgiving place?"

"You are still upset about Max?" Arthur asked knowing it was going to be all she would be talking about.

Her voice turned to slight anger, "Yea, like I am tired of my mom always siding with Fern and everyone else!"

"Don't take it too seriously," George commented, "Your mom is proud of you, can't you keep it at that?"

"No, because as I said before… many times before bullies are targeting me because of her teaching position."

"What are you going to do?" Arthur asked.

"I will go back to Terra… I will live in the mog village for the rest of my life. I was happy there, I liked how they worked together to solve their problems, and there was always someone to talk to… they listened."

"Your parent's will be upset if you decided to go, who will your baby brother look up to after you leave?"

Sue Ellen lowered her head, "It is for the best…"

"No, your parents will be sad," George explained, "I know many people are leaving on their own agendas…"

* * *

Mr. Crosswire and Moss did this job, Buck and Reno and Mr. Frensky were tired, doing jobs late at night, Reno was running out of lies, the poker lie didn't go over too well, it was the early evening around 8PM "The 1975 Dodge Charger is in the parking lot it is empty, there isn't much police presence here."

Moss walked up to the car and opened it, when he saw a pit-bull jump out chasing him and barking angrily; Moss ran back to the car breathing heavily, those dogs were ill-tempered, "Who the hell puts a pit-bull in a car?"

Mr. Crosswire and Mr. Moss were figuring out something, "How about we open the door a doors length away, you open the door of the Charger, and jump into it, then drive off."

They had done just that, it had worked; Mr. Moss didn't lose any body parts or get maimed by the dog.

The Dodge Charger was a classic car from the Dukes of Hazard, he was totally lucky this late model sports car, didn't have the doors welded shut like on the show or he wouldn't have been so lucky. They had driven the car and dropped it off.

Moss was breathing heavily as they went back home, this was starting to be risky, and they weren't even half way through. They only had 20 cars; they were now searching for car 21.

* * *

Buster was thinking and asking, "How are we going to get _April_ back?"

Prunella sighed while Fern grumbled, "I can't believe I am being dragged into this, don't you even have respect for the dead?"

"WE are going to resurrect _April_ AND you are going to like it!" Buster exclaimed impatiently.

"Well here you are; Terra." Mr. Kane announced and pointed down a road, "Go down this road to the Dark Mage village."

After some walking seeing that it was snowing moderately, good thing they were prepared as they bundled up, a bitter northern wind bit at Prunella's nose, "It is so beautiful out here…"

When they had arrived at the dark mage village Starla had noticed them, she was wearing the traditional dark mage outfit of black and navy blue she was wearing a pointy hat which covered her dark hair, "Fern, Buster, Prunella!"

Fern asked coyly, "Hi, what's new?"

"Not much, I been going to school and learning the ways of a dark mage, it really is a lot of fun, a lot of different students, some moogles, some of the typical fare we have on Earth and some aliens."

"I am glad you are enjoying it," Prunella admitted, "Anyways Buster has a request."

"And what is that?" The sixth grade poodle girl asked.

"Resurrect _April Murphy_!"

"You want to resurrect her?" Starla stammered nervously, "I have to check with the elder to see if that is ok," She had lead them to the elders hut, "Elder, a person we… uh… sort of knew from a different story had died unnaturally, and Buster here wants to resurrect her, is that ok?"

"Well, we always believe in dying of natural causes, instead of unnatural, and the way she died was _sort of_ unnatural."

"Where are her bones?" Buster exclaimed.

The Mage sighed sadly, "The poor girl's bones… they are at Thrag Station under analysis, if you can get a bone fragment it will be more than enough to get her back because of DNA and all, we are naturalists, we been doing a lot of research, Dark Mages on Terra have the longest life spans."

"And how do we get to Thrag station?" Fern asked nervously knowing that they would probably hit fast and hard….

"Fern my darling, let me explain, the Thrag station outpost Terra Division, is a bit down the road, once they see a dark mage they will run, the Thrag are complex at times with advanced technology but think magic is evil," he then asked, "Do you have any more stories about that Sherlock Holmes fellow?"

Starla was handed a map, and she led them along the way, Prunella looked at her, "Aren't you cold in that?"

"A little bit…"

They continued walking seeing some moogles wearing light jackets build snowmogs of themselves right to the detail as they made the finer details with spearheads.

"Sue Ellen lived with them for two weeks..." Fern sighed with some embarrassment, "But I wonder why it is much colder now compared to a few weeks ago…"

The moogle elder approached her; he was wearing a warm jacket, as were the other ones, "How is she doing? Is she still keeping up with the Kupponian?" he then added, "The reason was the Sphere of Fear's shockwaves from hitting Earth affected some of our weather, it is getting back to normal now, you and your friend arrived in what technically was late autumn, but it felt like late spring here as it was warm, we bundled up in our winter gear and survived."

"I don't know no one on Earth exactly speaks it…"

"Come to my village, there is a book I want to give her…"

"I got to go to the military station not far from here…"

A few minutes later they had arrived at the military looking complex, she explained it calmly to the Thrag guard.

"Get away from me heathen!" the helmeted guard yelled as he alerted all guards and they all pointed their strange guns at them.

To Be Continued.


	28. April Murphy

More Thrag guards had appeared armed to the teeth, one of the main guards had his weapon pointed at the young dark mage, and all the helmeted guard said was, "Leave this place at once!"

"Don't anger me!" Starla threatened as she pulled out her wand.

Starla focused her energies on the oak wand with a recently polished black gem, it had turned red and a fireball shot from it as the Thrag ran in terror and for cover, "THE HEATHEN ATTACKED!"

Prunella was nervous as Starla led them down the cold unforgiving corridors it was almost as cold as a meat locker in there, she started to talk, "I used the wand as a scare tactic, and they aren't familiar with magic and run once someone uses it up close."

They continued exploring, seeing jail cells and finally a lab, Starla opened the door, "Ok here we are Buster I hope you know this probably will be a waste of time…"

"Lieutenant T'l'p'g'r will be making his arrival shortly…" A Thrag said as he was looking at some vials while not paying attention to the intruders, "Be sure everything is ready…"

"I don't think so…" Starla stated as she used her wand, causing a fireball to appear the fireball hit some papers on a nearby desk and started a fire, "GET THE CONTAINER!"

Buster ran as fast as he could and he snatched it and ran out along with Prunella, Fern and Starla.

"Sue Ellen will thank us," Buster commented.

"Or possibly kill _you_ for shooting the plan to resurrect April," Prunella joked.

Buster found the jar with a white label stating the persons name on the clear container, "Here it is, bone fragments of April Murphy," under it; it had stated, 'Do not remove from this lab until investigation is complete. Personnel who remove it will be subject to termination.'

Starla pocketed the jar, and they had simply walked out the front door while some more guards came, "Get them! Don't be afraid to shoot!"

Starla used the wand again to scare them off, "RUN!"

The guard inside the building looked in some horror as his desk was burning, he grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the fire out what was left was a charred desktop and ashes of paper, "T'l'p'g'r is not going to be too happy…. Bone fragments are gone, a fire, and four kids as intruders."

Buster and company had run through the country side as Starla caught up with them and they ran to the village breathing heavily, "Ok Buster, you owe me one, I don't even know why I am doing this."

They had walked to the mog village it was tastefully decorated as they were nearing their holiday celebration, the elder approached them, "Welcome, happy Festivus."

"Uhh…?" Fern was confused.

"Offplaneters aren't familiar with the holiday… Festivus is like your version of Christmas, despite there are millions who celebrate it here on Terra," the creature explained as he handed Fern a leather bound dictionary, "English to Kupponian dictionary, she had grasped the language so quickly that she was speaking it fluently after a week of being here… Tell Lazarus the Dark Mage Elder to have a happy Festivus."

"Thanks…" Fern said as she put the book in her knapsack.

"Tell her to have a happy Festivus as well…"

Fern and company had left and walked down the cold foreboding road towards the Dark Mage village.

"Happy Festivus," Fern said as she hugged the Dark Mage leader.

"Thanks," The Elder replied happily as Starla ran up to the elder whom took the jar of bone fragments, "Ok, this is more than enough to revive her and whatnot, perhaps she won't age as she did and lead the life of a normal 12 year old, but I will get started, give me half an hour," he noticed Sue Ellen was absent, "Where is your friend?"

Fern lowered her head, "We had a big fight…"

"That is too bad, the moogles had spoken highly of her, and the elder there was telling me that she spoke their language fluently."

Half an hour later a perfectly healthy 12 year old cat girl who looked like Sue Ellen walked out, she was a few inches taller than the cat girl; Buster looked at her as she smiled at him, "April Murphy I presume…"

"Yes…" She replied; her clothes were of a teal colored blouse and on top of that a dark colored jacket.

"Come with us…" Buster ordered.

"Wait!" The elder yelled, "She does need some sort of ID… She seems perfectly healthy so it worked."

"But…" Buster replied in a small voice.

The elder had taken care of that as well, "Ok, April Murphy, birth place; Earth; place of residence…"

Starla looked at her and at the village elder, "Terra?"

"Parents?"

The elder just made up some names.

"Anything else?" April asked curiously.

Prunella was getting impatient, "We are to go, there is someone waiting for you on Earth."

Starla sighed, "I made some new friends… It is so sad to see you all go knowing I probably won't see you all again…"

"Don't worry, I will come back…" April responded as Prunella started to lead the way.

---

Mr. Crosswire had found a 1974 Jaguar E-Type down the street from the warehouse, it was on the list, this time Ed had taken the liberty to steal this car he had managed to but he set off the car alarm and drove it quickly to the warehouse before the cops could show up.

He turned off the car alarm and they both went home for the evening.

That evening at the Clarkson's she changed Max to prepare for tomorrow, Max was wearing a diaper and some baby clothes despite he didn't want to wear them, he was put to bed at 8:30.

She sighed as she looked at Reno who was dead tired on the couch sleeping, "Reno… it is time for you to take some responsibility," his wife said quietly.

The next morning, Max of course lost the ability to speak it just came out as baby talk; he was now two years old, Mrs. Clarkson sighed, and sniffed, he smelled awful, she changed his diaper and started to feed him some strained vegetables; she sighed again.

Outside the house Sue Ellen walked to school, she felt much better, but still upset with Fern. It was Monday, she went to class, and leered at Fern.

Fern couldn't bring herself to tell what happened; besides, she only had one day left to… attempt to fix the problem.

"So are you feeling much better?" Arthur asked.

"Not really…" Sue Ellen commented as she was visibly upset.

Arthur had a suggestion, "Come over to my house we can play the DDR game," Sue Ellen sighed sadly, that was the game she and Fern always played, she lowered her head in sadness.

Mrs. Armstrong walked towards her and said, "Perhaps it might be better if you did do something with someone else."

All Sue Ellen said was, "Where is Max?"

Mrs. Armstrong sighed she didn't want to lie but she did, "He caught a cold."

Sue Ellen knew her mother lied; she didn't want to get in any more trouble, so all she said was, "Fine, I will play DDR with Arthur."

Arthur smiled at her, "Thanks, can Buster come and watch?"

If Buster was to say anything about her being an alien, she would surely get upset the last thing she needed was hearing that he said something cruel to her… or did something, "No."

Buster was saddened when he heard her he turned to her, "Why can't I come?"

"You know why."

"No."

Arthur intervened, "Buster, Sue Ellen doesn't want you do or say anything that will upset her."

"When was the last time I had said anything bad about her or did something?"

Fern despite not being much of a friend of Sue Ellen anymore "Come on Buster, a few days ago!"

Those four students just started arguing until Mrs. Armstrong separated them.

Muffy leered at Buster, as and looked at Mrs. Armstrong, "Buster hit me!"

"I did not!" the rabbit boy yelled, "She was strangling me!"

Muffy had stated, "I have a bruise on my arm because of you…"

"Stop being so whiny all the time and-"

Muffy had snapped and she jumped from her chair and tackled Buster, "This is for all the mean things you done to me, and for Sue Ellen, and everyone else who has to deal with you!"

"Oh my god!" Binky yelled as he saw what was happening he was literally shocked, this was never a side of Muffy he didn't want to see.

Mrs. Armstrong separated Muffy the monkey girl was punching him as hard as she could, "That is enough, both of you." She took both kids out of the classroom, Buster of course was crying; Muffy was taken to the office to cool down for a while, Mrs. Armstrong took Buster to the nurse's office, of course there was some soreness.

"Are you ok?" Mrs. Armstrong asked.

"No…" Buster cried.

"Nurse Flynn, can you look over him to see if he has any injuries?"

"Will do…" The nurse responded.

And Mrs. Armstrong walked back to class, "Sorry about that."

* * *

Mr. Frensky was at it again that evening, "A red 1980's Corvette is going to be at cruise night at the other diner cross town. The other car will be a Camero both are on the list, the other cars are ones we don't need, any takers?"

Buck and Reno volunteered.

Buck pulled the same stunt with sleeping gas again; they had taken the Camero and Corvette, Cars 22 and 23.

They were pushing their luck now, as both cars sped off in different routes to throw off the police, Reno was driving through a river bed, while Buck was taking one way streets, going the wrong way.

Did Buck want to destroy the car? No. He wanted to see some other cars destroyed.

He sped through the streets in the Camero, as the police could hardly catch up but were gaining speed, "This is too dangerous…"

Freeman had crashed and flipped his cruiser. And Ryder crashed his car into the flipped cruiser. Buck had sped off towards the county line.

Reno on the other hand was flying through the riverbed as cops started driving through it; he weaved towards the side to the road level and turned onto the road towards Rockwood.

Cars 22 and 23 were successfully delivered to the warehouse. They had 37 cars left, the stakes were growing with every new car stolen, and the risks associated with this were climbing as well as well as the new forms of near death experiences.

They hadn't expected pit bulls and poisonous snakes in two cars from earlier on in.

* * *

That evening Arthur and Sue Ellen started dancing to the beat in the game; this was some of the best fun they both had in a while.

"You are pretty good," Arthur said as he was taking a breather.

She smiled, "You too…"

Outside the house, Prunella, April and Buster looked on, "See?"

"Sue Ellen?" April asked.

"Yes, her aren't you going to talk to her?"

"What am I going to say?"

"Just talk to her…"

"Once Sue Ellen hears of this she… or Muffy will possibly kill you," Prunella suggested to Buster who was still well sore from this morning.

April took a deep breath, she was a bit nervous about doing this, she had knocked on the door and Sue Ellen had answered, "Hello?" she saw it was April, "Oh it's you…"

April chuckled, "Sue Ellen, I would figure you would greet me a bit better…"

"I am sorry; I am worried about Max…"

"Stop worrying so much, I should be dead but Buster brought me back, he noticed that you were upset…"

Sue Ellen saw Buster in the bushes and she leered at him, but of course there was no denying it she was saddened by seeing her as she felt tears well up in her eyes, "Why did you die?"

"It was a 'time imbalance' to keep it simple, I am sorry for what happened, but I can't stay here long, they all think I am dead if I go back to Yordil, they will hunt me down, your friends did this to reassure you that everything is ok. I am going back to Terra to stay there; some people there are going to look after me…" She then smiled, "Some Yordilians…"

Sue Ellen replied in a voice of sorrow as she knew she was going to either beat Buster to a pulp or cry, "Please stay here… you were like a sister to me…"

"I don't want to endanger you or your friends; from what I understand, Fern, Prunella, Buster and Dark Mage Starla risked their lives to resurrect me, I don't want any Thrag interfering with anyone here."

Sue Ellen didn't say anything except, "Goodbye I guess, I am glad to know that you didn't die in vain…"

April smiled at her as both cat girls hugged each other tightly, "I got to go…" and the older cat girl left.

"Wait… you probably want to meet Max…"

April concluded, "I will come when I know the time is appropriate."

She had walked down the cold street and all Sue Ellen said was, "Bye April…"

She put on her jacket, and went up to Prunella and Buster; the rat girl looked at her, "Well?"

Sue Ellen sighed, "I am glad you both have done this for me…"

"Fern had some help with this as well…" Buster admitted.

* * *

The next day had come, he was one year old, his mother got a baby carriage off of Mrs. Read, Mrs. Clarkson bought some blue baby clothes, and he was wearing them, she was pushing him down the street in the carriage, as a blanket was covering his body.

When Sue Ellen had saw him in the carriage as she walked to school, she saw the baby tiger boy and tickled his chin, "What a cute baby; I didn't know you were pregnant."

Mrs. Clarkson lowered her head, "It is Max…"

Sue Ellen she was shocked, her eyes had lost focus, nothing more had come out of her mouth expect for what she had just said; her eyes gazed over with a blank expression; Mrs. Clarkson looked at her, she was oblivious to the tiger woman and a fly that buzzed across the cat girls head, she tried to bring her back but Sue Ellen didn't take notice, "Oh dear…"

TBC


	29. State Of Shock

Mrs. Clarkson had taken the poor cat girl home; Sue Ellen hadn't spoken a word she had gone into a state of shock. This had shocked her because she hadn't seen him for almost a week and the end result was a one year old tiger boy. Mrs. Clarkson saw that Mr. Armstrong was almost set to go to work, "Don't get too prepared, I think Sue Ellen went into a state of shock."

She had placed Sue Ellen on the couch, and she laid there flat on her back staring blankly at the ceiling.

_Come on talk… You know you can... I saw him age regress and April age progress, now I seen everything…_

Mr. Armstrong sighed as he picked up the phone, "I will call my mother and tell her I have to stay home, I will look after Sue Ellen and Gary; and my wife I will tell Christine that Sue Ellen won't be in class today."

_Strange… Did I die? No I am not dead just in shock…_

After he had done the phone calls, Sue Ellen was still laying there in complete shock, she was well sort of mentally ill to put the term loosely, she had closed her eyes and gone to sleep. There wasn't more she could do.

Sue Ellen's soul drifted outside to see Mr. Kane and Fern chatting

Back downstairs Mrs. Clarkson smelled something, it was Max, and she picked him up from the carriage; placed him on the table and changed his diaper. This had brought her memories when Max was a baby. Right after that she was bottle feeding him.

Outside the house Mr. Kane was walking down the street, he was wearing a fedora and fine Italian suit which was his typical attire when he did his reporting, and had seen Fern walking, "Fern… we need to talk, Since Monday of last week, Max had been age regressing, he will stay a baby until… until someone undoes the curse."

_Fern… I knew it… Just fess up!_

Fern lowered her head, "She was right… But I don't know how to, I got the wand from the dark mage village." She had then asked, "How much time before school?"

"20 minutes."

Fern and Mr. Kane rushed to Sue Ellen's she had knocked on the door, and Mr. Armstrong answered, "If you are looking for Sue Ellen, she isn't able to come out; she had gone into a state of shock."

Fern sighed, she only wanted to say sorry to her, he had let her in, she went to see Sue Ellen who had awaken, "I am sorry for what happened, I will find a way to cure him soon… I am so sorry that I bought someone from your past here! If she was causing problems I would have intervened and suggested to the Dark Mage to keep her dead…"

_April?_

When Fern said those words, nothing came out of Sue Ellen's mouth. The aardvark man and Fern had both left.

"You are being fairly honest you told her all you could tell…"

"Is this shock really happening? Sue Ellen was out of the loop that she couldn't comprehend that Max turned into a baby?"

"I uh think you are right, like she was upset over it, she couldn't take the fact he was age regressing and seeing how April well progressed in front of her eyes had something to do with it."

Mrs. Clarkson walked to school still pushing the baby carriage, she had went inside to the teachers lounge, Mrs. Armstrong was enjoying a cup of coffee, she had seen the baby tiger boy, "Goo." He said as he saw Mrs. Armstrong.

She picked him up and held him in her arms, "I can't believe that he age regressed, he looks so cute…" she gushed.

Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "I don't know what happened; someone cursed him for what I've been hearing."

She took Max and put him back in the carriage and went home.

Mrs. Armstrong went to class a bit worried; Buster changed the attendance sheet, "Ok time for attendance, Anita Bath…" she paused, "Rusty Bedsprings?" Buster chuckled, "Maya Butreeks."

Buster was now laughing like crazy as Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "Buster, can you stop putting fake attendance sheets on my desk?"

Arthur sitting next to Buster sighed, and commented, "This is as bad as the time when you wanted to gain weight so you would be too fat to get out of school."

Buster argued "That never happened…"

"Remember _King Sized Buster?_" Arthur asked as she read the story, "If the guy continued it surely you get fatter."

"No I would learn my lesson…"

"_After_ you are too fat to move," Arthur joked.

(Arthur's assuming Fantasy Scene)

Buster was too fat to move, tabloid reporters were taking pictures of him, as he said "I wash myself with a rag on a stick."

Mr. Baxter walked in, "You are a disgrace to this family."

(End Fantasy Scene)

"That never happened… yet." Buster commented.

After class let out, Mrs. Armstrong called Buster to her desk, "The nurse told me you were crying hysterically because of what happened."

Buster lowered his head as he was upset.

"There isn't really much to say, your father told me Bitzi was abusive, I am sorry for dumping this on you, I also forgot to tell you a few days ago my parents really love you coming over and keeping them company."

"What about Muffy?" Buster sniffed.

"I am split about what to do, I don't know whether a few days suspension will be good for her, or a weeks worth of detentions would be good."

After school, Mrs. Armstrong came home, Sue Ellen was still lying on the couch, and she turned to her husband, "Has she eaten?"

"No."

Mrs. Armstrong was a bit upset with herself, "I still wished I listened to her instead of siding with Fern."

"Don't blame yourself; Sue Ellen was under a lot of stress…"

"No, I do…" Mrs. Armstrong commented with remorse, the cat girl looked dreadful, she really hadn't moved an inch, nor talked since this morning.

She had set out a blanket on her body as the cat girl did sleep on the couch.

_I should just end it and die gracefully… Die like many had done before…

* * *

_

Mr. Frensky and company were doing the next set of cars, he had seen the 69 Mustang at his neighbors, and the Aston Martin V8 at another neighbors, Buck and Reno decided to go for the Mustang while Moss and Mr. Crosswire went for the Aston Martin.

It was an easy auto theft for Mr. Frensky and Moss that they just unlocked the car, hotwired it and drove off, without notice.

However after Buck and Reno took the Mustang, there was a boa constrictor in the back seat it was wrapping its body around Buck, "Yahhh!"

He continued driving trying not to damage the car, since the windows were tinted police wouldn't see it. But were followed.

Reno pulled out a knife and started stabbing it trying to kill it.

"HURRY!" Buck screamed as the snake was putting a hold on him.

They continued weaving through traffic, and heard a crash, it was the cop car, and it had hit the side of a parked car, elevated to its side and slid down the road on the driver side door. Until it landed on its hood.

The second car still pursuing them crashed into the first car but still followed despite the damage, Buck had found the snake relaxing, 40 stabs with the knife was weakening it.

Buck and Reno continued driving they had thrown the dead snake out the window, it had smashed into the cop car, and it had crashed into two parked cars, and an oncoming vehicle crashed into the police car.

They turned around seeing the damage, 4 police cars damaged, 2 insane stunts, 10 close calls with authorities, 3 near death experiences, and 4 civilian cars damaged. 0 arrests and 25 cars retrieved. The Frensky gang was really pushing their luck.

To Be Continued.


	30. Bombshell

The next day, Sue Ellen woke up… still on the couch, Mrs. Armstrong set a tray of food for her on the table, "Please eat." She said… then added "I am sorry for not listening to you; I should have, but please say or do something…"

Sue Ellen didn't say a word; she was horrified of what had happened. To her it was all Fern's fault; she was so upset that she wasn't even talking. She just gazed blankly at the ceiling.

Mrs. Armstrong sighed sadly, her daughter wasn't responding or acknowledging her presence, it was a pretty severe case of shock. She went into the kitchen, still upset, "I want her to know that I am sorry for not listening to her…"

Sue Ellen was starving because she wanted to die peacefully even though it was going to be foolish as this was in her thoughts that she didn't need to eat, however the problem was that it would start damaging her health soon as she started eating less and less eventually not even touching anything her parents prepared which was a cause for concern.

This was concerning her parents, if Sue Ellen wasn't eating, it would definitely be a danger to her health, she needed food in her or she would slowly die from starvation.

Mrs. Armstrong came back into the room to check up on her before she left for work, "Please eat something…"

Mr. Armstrong looked at his wife sadly, "You better call the doctor soon, she of course is starving…"

* * *

Mrs. Clarkson was having problems of her own, it was Max, he was crying for food. She had fed him, and right after she had let him play with some baby toys.

He was crawling around, as there was a knock at the door, it was Fern, and she was almost in tears, "What's wrong?"

Fern saw Max, "I did it! I accidentally turned Max into a baby!"

Mrs. Clarkson wasn't too happy, "Why didn't you tell me earlier, we could have corrected the problem!"

"Mr. Kane had told me that we were to let the curse run its course, because there would be adverse side effects if we done an age progression curse on him."

Mrs. Clarkson seemed appeased… "Makes sense." Max was tugging at his mother's leg, and she picked him up, "Do you want to hold him?"

Fern held him and he started to cry, she had given him back to his mother. He wasn't hungry, dirty the diaper or needed to be burp; Fern had gave off some bad vibes, "He is so cute as a baby…"

"Fern, I know, but you better not get used to him like this, I expect him back to his old age soon…" She reminded her, and then Fern left.

She went back inside, Max was crawling on the carpet flooring, Reno came home minutes later, "Where the hell were you?"

"Maria…"

"Don't lie, I know you, Buck, Harry, Mr. Frensky and Mr. Crosswire are up to something!" She yelled.

Reno had to tell, "You know how Francine got kidnapped? It was a ransom, they are forcing us to steal 60 different vehicles give them a briefcase of a million dollars, all of them which are classic, sport and luxury model vehicles. If we don't get them all within 30 days, they are going to kill her."

Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "Max is a baby…"

Reno saw his son crawling around on the floor, "Who did this?"

"Fern, she was nearly in tears, she is going to try and find a way to bring him back."

Mr. Clarkson had held his son, he had smelled something rank, "I think he needs a diaper change."

She took Max; placed him on a table, changed him out of the clothes and changed his diaper, "You will be learning to change diapers Reno… On top of that, you are going to spend a little bit more time here helping me!"

Reno had no choice, he was whipped; Buck told his wife to go on to Tennessee and he would catch up to her once this ordeal was done.

"But Moss has a tattoo of Johnny Cash on his ass! And his wife doesn't even know about it!"

"Things may work differently in his household but here, we are trying to assimilate into the culture and customs here…" She replied as she was slightly annoyed, then calmed down, "So please can you just help me, help me, this is for poor Sue Ellen's sake."

* * *

Mrs. Armstrong had come home for lunch… some of the food from the tray wasn't touched; Mr. Armstrong was in the kitchen reading the paper, particularly the auto theft story.

_I was hungry… but if I am not eating much I will suffer health problems… Hope they hook up intervenes because of it because they are actually caring for me, but they probably want me to die anyways… Dying seems like an option at this point no one is doing anything to help me; no one cares about me, not even my own mother._

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "Sue Ellen _isn't_ eating, but I want a doctor to check up on her." she had called a doctor that was able to make house calls, and a aardvark man wearing just a simple suit and tie carrying a black leather medical kit came to the door.

"Mrs. Armstrong, I presume?" He said in a British accent.

"Oh yes, come on in."

She led him to Sue Ellen; he had taken her vital signs and everything, "She has good vital signs; however she isn't really acknowledging our presence. In my medical expertise, she has seen… or witnessed something really traumatic. I recommend that she is put on intervenes."

"She was under a lot of stress this week, since I am her fifth grade teacher, I told her to stay home for a few days to get some rest; but it did work until the first day she got back to school."

"If she doesn't eat anything, she will starve to death… or suffer organ damage due to lack of nutrition." The doctor warned, "I will bring the stuff and set up the equipment as it seems a bit too hard to transfer her to the hospital."

Mrs. Armstrong sighed in disbelief.

* * *

Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn were having fun together; they were in bed until Mrs. Read had caught them.

"Dave?" Mrs. Read asked.

Mr. Read was shocked, "Jane what are you doing here?"

"You lied to me! I talked to them and there is no such thing as, two naked guys in a hot tub! So what is it?"

Mr. Read and Mr. Ratburn put their clothes back on and they went downstairs with Jane.

"Look, I am gay…" Mr. Read admitted.

"Dave, you are cheating on me with Mr. Ratburn, how are we going to tell the kids?"

"We are in love," Mr. Read argued, "At least he knows how to touch a man!"

"And _we_ are divorced!" Mrs. Read replied.

Mr. Read gasped as he was speechless.

Mrs. Read had soon left and had gone back with the divorce papers and a lawyer, they had signed everything, and were now officially divorced.

----

Mr. Frensky was shooting up ideas to try and get the other 35 cars, he had looked at all the photos of spectacular car crashes, and insane jumps, "Those photos are neat; it really tells a story."

"Where do you suggest we go and get car 26?"

"Used car lots sometimes have classic cars; new car lots have expensive cars they want." He looked around for Reno, "Where is he?"

"His wife told him to stay home," Moss chuckled, "Whipped, despite my wife being annoyed that I faked my death."

"What'll happen if one is the lone driver, and he or see encounters some dangerous animal, Buck is afraid of snakes, he nearly got poisoned by one when he was a child!" Mr. Crosswire yelled to try and get his point across, "Moss, stay here be sure the cops are kept busy."

They had left Moss at the dealership, he scratched his thin brown hair nervously as Mr. Freeman and Mr. Ryder had show up, "Is Ed Crosswire around?"

"Nope, he and Buck had some personal business to do."

He was a bit annoyed, "_Is Reno Clarkson around?_"

"He is at home with his wife."

"How about Oliver Frensky?"

"He went out."

"Tell them if they had any involvement on the destruction of five cars on 1st street that they are under arrest for 25 counts of grand theft auto, 4 counts of destruction of city and county property, 20 counts of endangering public safety, and possession…" He paused, "There may possibly be three counts of possession of a dangerous animal, and numerous counts of dangerous use of a motor vehicles."

To Be Continued.


	31. Strutting Into The Car Dealership

While Mr. Freeman and Mr. Ryder were talking to Moss about the lists of fines and violations that would be presented to them if they were caught; Mr. Crosswire, Frensky and Buck had decided to take a trip to a used car lot, there were two cars on the list, a aardvark man wearing a tacky looking suit looked at Ed and Buck they were both wearing complete disguises.. He thought to himself as he saw them both, "Two fools"

Fools indeed, Mr. Crosswire was wearing a white suit with a dodgy collar, white trousers with massive flares. He heard Stayin' Alive play and he strut into the car dealership.

Buck looked at him, and he was wearing was wearing a denim cowboy hat, denim shirt and denim pants of the color black.

He walked out, "What brings you here?"

Mr. Crosswire talked, "I am interested in the De Tomaso Magusta."

"$75000. But I recommend something like a 1981 Honda."

"Can I test drive the De Tomaso?"

"I see no harm; you are trustworthy."

Ed turned to Buck, "Zed?"

"I want to try the 2002 Toyota Supra Mark 4!" Buck replied calmly.

The seedy car salesman made a suggestion, "A pickup truck is more your taste, I am saving that for some teenagers."

"YOU SONOVA!" Buck yelled as he grabbed the collar of the sports jacket he was wearing, "You give me the keys to that Toyota or you are going to be acquainted with why your brains look like!"

"Ok, ok, calm down, I will get the keys for both cars," he had come back with the keys, "Have fun boys."

They both drove off slowly down the road. As they were out of the car owner's line of sight, they had sped off.

Buck was shocked, over 100 clicks in 13 seconds, Mr. Crosswire was taking longer to speed up the car was older but of a sports car type. Police were following them, Freeman yelled in the megaphone, "YOU BOTH ARE UNDER ARREST! PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY!

There was no slowing down; they had quickly driven past the county line.

Both police cars stopped as they saw the sign.

Mr. Crosswire and Buck had dropped off the cars, Mr. Davenport didn't recognize them both, "Who are you?"

"The guys getting the 60 cars," Mr. Crosswire replied as he was annoyed, "We have cars 26 and 27."

Davenport's cigar fell out of his mouth, "Where the hell did you get that Magusta they hadn't been made in 25 years!"

Mr. Crosswire sneered at the hick, "_We_ stole it."

Mr. Crosswire and Buck went to the bathroom; they had changed from their disguises, changed into their original clothes and left, Mr. Frensky was waiting.

Mr. Freeman and Mr. Ryder set up a roadblock, they of course stopped Frensky, he knocked on the window and Ed rolled it down, "Afternoon Ed, have you seen an Italian sports car and a Toyota go into Rockwood?"

Mr. Crosswire lied, "No, we were checking out the scrap yards as we are building some cars."

"I am going to tell you something I told Harry, if you all are involved in the theft of cars, then you will be spending some hard time at Penn State."

Buck chuckled, "Going back to school?"

Ryder nudged Freeman, "It is state pen! Be warned, we are watching you because police never sleep! A police officer always gets his man!"

Mr. Crosswire sighed, "Stop quoting the RCMP and let us get back to Elwood City, because our rights are being violated as we speak."

They allowed them to pass.

"Those assholes are probably stealing the cars," Freeman grumbled.

"Then we haul their asses to jail!" Ryder added.

Before school, Mr. and Mrs. Read had talked to the kids; Mr. Read had a thin layer of peach fuzz forming on his face.

"Arthur, D.W. we need to talk," Mrs. Read said but was interrupted.

"It's Max's fault!" D.W. yelled.

"No, it doesn't have anything to do with him." Mr. Read sighed, "Your mother and I are getting a divorce…"

They both gasped of course.

"Why?" D.W. asked.

"Sometimes parents disagree over certain things and they have to divorce before it turns violent…" Mrs. Read explained, "Now get to school," and she sighed as she went to her fathers.

Arthur sighed as he left with D.W. and they both walked to school.

They had run into Buster, "Hey!"

Arthur sighed sadly.

"What's wrong?"

"My parents got divorced."

"That's too bad…"

"I do wonder if they are going to meet anyone new…" Arthur thought nervously as they continued to walk to school, "First Sue Ellen in shock, now my parents get divorced…"

After school Arthur had visited Sue Ellen, to him she was still on the couch, intervenes hooked up to her, "Any change?"

"She has to eat through a tube, the doctor predicts she will be like this for a while, she hasn't talked… yet."

_Sue Ellen talk, I know you have words to say… I know you are in your darkest hour, I know you are going to be nearing deaths door soon, help me help yourself and snap out of this funk!_

_What's the point, you saw how April died, you saw how others had died to an extent, but less bloody I should just die in peace and hope for a better after life._

Arthur looked at her; she was looking dreadful, he went down to his knees face level with her, "Please get better…"

He grabbed her hand and rubbed it, she hadn't noticed it, but a slight smile formed on her face, she still wasn't talking, or acknowledging Arthur's presence, "Please talk… I know you can…" Arthur had tears welling up in his eyes as he had seen her.

Carla soon came to visit; she had seen that Arthur laid his head on her torso and was crying.

Arthur had so much fun playing DDR with her; these were the most cherished memory that he had when she talked.

They both went to the kitchen for some cookies Mrs. Armstrong had made.

Arthur munched on a cookie, "When will she get better?"

"I don't know, soon I hope…" Mrs. Armstrong replied sadly, "I care for her; I should have listened to her instead of ignoring her."

Arthur sighed sadly, "My parents are getting divorced…"

"That is too bad; they were a lovely couple…"

"I feel it is my fault…"

"No, your father had some urges he needed to get out…"

Meanwhile Mr. Read was at a singles apartment, for now he was setting up when Mr. Armstrong visited, "So David how is it going?"

"Single life is great…" the aardvark man explained.

"_You_ cheated on your wife."

"Let me continue, I get to sleep in a racecar bed do you?"

Mr. Armstrong sighed at Mr. Read's lack of responsibility, "I sleep in a big bed with my wife."

"She took the house, and I have to live here and wait until Nigel comes."

"I will leave you…" Mr. Armstrong stated nervously and he left, moments later Mr. Ratburn came.

---

That evening Reno ran into Crosswire Motors, "Oliver! There is a car show coming to Elwood City in three days. 12 of the cars we need are there!"

"Excellent, then we should try and get them all."

"Yea, we will need to," Frensky commented, "Soon my daughter will come home and things will return to normal."

"Yea, this is far from normality, I seen a lot of bad things in my day… Holding a child hostage takes the cake."

"We will get the cars no problem right?" Oliver asked with some slight nervousness in his voice.

"Sure, just as long as we don't set off any alarms or attract any unwanted attention then we should be safe from any police entanglements."

This was the ultimate risk, surely to cause problems, and police to show up, Mr. Crosswire was sitting in his office smoking a cigar with Moss, "Cubans are the best…"

"You said it…" Moss stated as he took a puff of the illicit cigar.

Reno walked in… good ol'… well sort of law abiding Reno, "You both know those cigars are illegal in this country."

"It is of a victory, you have been so helpful," Ed replied with a grin, he opened up a box of his private reserve and pulled one out for Reno, "Smoke?"

"I don't…" Reno rejected the offer, "It is a filthy habit…"

Moss sighed, "Sometimes I don't know about you, you seem a bit fruity for my liking."

Reno was now annoyed, "How would you feel driving a car off a ramp from the top of a parking garage to street level almost blowing the shocks?"

Buck joined in the argument, "We almost got killed by snakes, snakes in a car."

"Not as bad as a pit-bull!" Moss yelled.

"Well you are all a bit well gay for my liking!" Reno argued.

Moss heard that and got in Reno's face, "Hey I am not the one who is whipped, if anyone is gay, you are."

"Well Mr. Read is gay!" Reno yelled because he presumably read _Fuzzy Fuzzy Cool_ and heard that he recently got divorced by Mrs. Read

They all started arguing until Mr. Frensky and Mr. Crosswire intervened.

"That is enough!" Frensky yelled, "Instead of arguing about what happened we should all be going out and getting those cars before Francine dies! And Besides Mr. Read is gay; he got divorced by his wife, and is planning on marrying Mr. Ratburn!"

To Be Continued.


	32. Big Car Heist

They had all apologized, Reno started to talk, "We have less than an hour to do it though because police may guard it."

Mr. Frensky was shocked, he was excited, "Reno, Harry, Buck, and Ed we have a major heist tonight, and I hope we all know how to drive the transport trucks that can transport cars."

12 cars, it was a lot this would bring the total to 39 cars… if they didn't mess up, but how often could a police car drive a transport truck off the road?

They had driven to the civic center where the car show was in four of the special trucks, Buck and Moss had broke the locks, opened the door, then opened the overhead door, and waited.

They had drove car after car onto the truck, after each truck was full of four cars, they had left… however soon the police were called they set off the alarm!

Six police cars to go after four transport trucks, Freeman and Rider had ordered the police officers to not use any guns, because the cars were classic, they didn't want to get sued by the owners for bullet holes.

As they got on the two way street, the trucks drove into pair's side by sides, this was dangerous… and suicidal.

"OH MY GOD!" Ryder yelled in horror as he tried to drive the truck off the side of the road… it was too heavy, and Ryder's car had smashed the head lights, another police car had smashed the tail lights of Ryder's car.

They continued to try and run them off the road, however when getting onto the country roads, they were nearing a bridge, water was a few feet under the bridge. They risked trying it again… but the police force had ended up with six police cars in the river.

The transport trucks continued driving about five miles down the road and had passed the county line, they had driven to the warehouse.

Davenport was lighting a cigar, when the trucks had come, it had fallen out of his mouth, the chubby bear man was shocked, "12 cars?"

"39 cars Davenport," Crosswire stated proudly, "Our biggest heist yet."

"I am in a good mood tonight, mostly because you managed to bring in 12 cars in one night."

He went to the back room and untied Francine; she had run out to see her dad.

When her father had seen her, Francine was dreadfully thin; she looked like she was about 20 or 25 pounds lighter than her peers, "Daddy!"

"Davenport, she looks like she is starving, get her some food!" Buck yelled, "Look how underweight she is!"

Her arms and legs were bony she had looked like she was anorexic

"She's been sick?" Mr. Crosswire asked.

Reno sighed looking how dreadfully thin Francine was, "Man that ain't right, don't tie up a person who is sick! Where is the honor? When I dealt with hostage situations, no hostages got sick, people actually had honor, and they were ballsy."

"Ok… Ok… we will let you take her… but… BUT some of my men will accompany you because I don't want you to run off and tell the police of this," He paused and lit his cigar, "Because I can easily tell them that you stole the cars and you will all be put in a penitentiary. And besides I got a few good men with me."

The Benneditto's appeared out of the shadows armed with Sub-machine guns.

They had left with six aardvark men wearing black, they were armed to the teeth and had drove to a Burrito Barn, and they had ordered some food, as Francine was eating a substantial amount of food. Either they were lying or they weren't feeding her.

Francine was really hungry and had eaten until she was full.

They had taken her back, because they knew no good would come of this, 21 cars left, they went back to the warehouse, Mr. Frensky grabbed him, "You lying sonofa-"

Davenport's men pointed their SMG's at him, "Say it and you will be shot!"

Mr. Frensky released his hold, and Francine walked towards Davenport, "Be sure you don't let her starve to death, she had eaten quite a bit when we got her food!"

They had left, Crosswire called Bailey and they drove back to Elwood City, over the bridge, they had seen Mr. Freeman and other officers soaking wet, he flagged them down, "You four are going in for questioning."

They were shocked; they thought they were going to get caught.

A half hour later they were at the police station.

"Ok…" Freeman sighed, "I am going for election for being police chief next year, I don't want to go in the running finding out that I let 39 auto thefts happen because they cross the county line."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Moss joked.

"Yea, perhaps they should hire better officers," Reno joked.

"That's it…" Ryder replied as he pulled out a nightstick.

"We aren't going to do that sort of thing, we are just going to have a conversation," Mr. Freeman said as he grabbed the nightstick, then cleared his voice, "Ok, Reno, Buck and Harry, you three seem to have links to those deaths of those… those cultists."

"You don't know what we were dealing with, we were there, but the Benneditto's killed them, there is only room for one major group of baddies," Reno explained calmly.

"Yea, but explain how you guys were there, what were you doing?" Ryder asked calmly.

"Wait…" Frensky asked, "Why are we going back to the old news before stating the facts about this thing about stealing cars."

"Wait." Ryder stated and continued to talk to Reno, Buck and Moss, "You three are there, and you three should be put in jail for murder."

"We were being mediators when the Benneditto's fired shots and the Heresy almost killed Reno, we ran for cover while the Benneditto Family Mafia was killing the heresy lords one by one," Buck explained.

Freeman stopped them, "Before we go off topic; where were you all this evening?"

"Rockwood," Mr. Crosswire lied, "We were there to get parts for the car we are building."

Mr. Freeman sighed sadly, "I don't believe you."

* * *

"Can't believe Muffy got a weeks worth of detentions…" Prunella thought then had sighed she was a bit upset with Sue Ellen's problem of going into shock, she had turned to Fern, "Did you visit her yet?"

Fern looked like she was going to cry, "I did…"

Fern obviously was upset over this, she didn't know if it was due to Sue Ellen being in shock or their so-called friendship, she asked in a quiet above whisper voice, "Is she going to die?"

"I seen her and she looks a little bit thinner," Prunella nodded, "Her parents say she isn't eating that much and apparently now she is hooked up to intervenes."

Fern was obviously upset now, "She is going to die and it is all my fault!"

Prunella tried to calm her down, "Don't say that…"

Fern of course didn't listen, "Either she did go into shock seeing Max as a baby or April, but still it is my fault."

Prunella just sighed.

Fern lowered her head sadly, "If you have that wand still, just use it and cast a death spell on me…"

Prunella didn't listen.

"DO IT!" She screamed.

Prunella pulled out the wand but couldn't do it, Fern had a lot to live for, "It is not worth it, because there is a cat girl at the Armstrong house who is slowly dieing…"

* * *

Meanwhile Arthur was coming home from school with D.W. and when they had gotten inside Mr. Ratburn was talking to Mr. Read casually.

To Be Continued.


	33. Questioning

Reno and company still at the police station were shocked still being their for a good 20 minutes, Freeman continued, "I don't believe you; I think you are all responsible for the auto thefts!"

"But Leon!" Mr. Frensky sighed, "We aren't stealing cars; we are building cars from old parts."

"I am sorry I am just annoyed, we haven't caught these guys yet and they stole 39 vehicles. I am also trying to capture those who kidnapped your daughter."

They released them and they had gone home for the evening.

* * *

Mr. Read had some explaining to do, "Arthur, D.W. meet my new partner Nigel Ratburn."

Arthur's jaw had dropped in shock, "Dad, you are going to marry him?"

"Yes, you see, we are both in love, I love his company, and he will be your new step-dad."

Arthur wasn't impressed, "Everyone will make fun of me!"

Mr. Ratburn explained, "They won't, look at Sue Ellen's mom-"

"Sue Ellen happens to be in a state of shock," Arthur yelled as he stormed upstairs.

"We need to explain it a bit better…" Ratburn suggested.

D.W. was still there, "It is well… cool."

Mr. Read sighed, "I wish your brother could understand though…"

"He is embarrassed that since I used to be his third grade teacher, he feels threatened that his classmates will make fun of him."

"That is probably why…"

---

It wasn't too late, Mr. Kane was talking to Fern, "This is just like old times, you a shy fourth grader trying to set things straight with Muffy, now you with the magic wand, trying to set things straight with Max… oh how things must change."

"Jason… I did it by accident, I want to go back to Terra to set things straight… baby Max hates me each time I hold him he cries."

"He probably is scared you are going to kidnap him… I don't know I never been to Tigris before…"

The next day, Sue Ellen still hadn't talked as more machinery to keep her alive was hooked up, she was starting to develop some health problems, and the doctor had looked at her, taken her heartbeat, everything, "Hmm… her health is starting to fail."

Mrs. Armstrong was shocked, "What? Why?"

"She has been in shock for a while already, there usually health problems that is why intervenes is hooked up so she can last a while longer just incase she well… snaps out of it."

Sue Ellen's spirit looked down over the cat girl's lifeless body.

_Oh no… I am going to die… my life is over…_

Mrs. Armstrong told Mrs. Clarkson not to bring Max over… unless he was back at his normal age.

"Anything?" She asked her husband.

"Nothing…"

Arthur had seen her; she still didn't acknowledge his presence, "When you get better, we are going to play some DDR…"

Mrs. Armstrong put her hand on his shoulder, "I don't know when she will talk again… I know you had fun playing DDR with her, but with poor Max as a baby, I know if she sees him as a baby still her condition will get worse."

* * *

The tiger family was at home, Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "Reno, you need to stop this, Mr. Freeman was wondering where you were, I can't keep on lying to him, one of these days, you and your friends are going to get arrested."

"We only have 21 more cars."

"21 too many… You are going to get caught, the long arm of the law is stepping up patrols around car lots, cruise nights and car shows, if you aren't careful, they will put you in jail, I don't want that, your son doesn't want that."

Mr. Clarkson looked at the baby tiger boy; he sighed sadly and sniffed, "Eww…"

His wife chuckled, "Looks like you have to change him."

Mr. Clarkson grudgingly changed his sons diaper, and gave him to his wife, "I will try and see if there is a way that we can get the police, we are only like 10 days out of 30 in the deadline."

"Yea, but the police are on high alert; state and highway patrol may get involved now," she got the baby carriage and she placed Max in it, "I am going to take Max around the block."

Reno had gone to see Moss, Buck and Mr. Crosswire, they had looked at all the pictures of the chases they had gone through, "See this was last night when all those police cars went into the river, good times." He turned to the one when Reno and Buck did that insane jump off the building, "I am surprised the cars shocks weren't shot or the car fell apart, it was an awesome jump."

Mr. Crosswire chuckled, "Here is the one where Reno threw the boa out of the window hitting the police car."

Almost 20 different photos were taken, both with results of damage to public and private property, this was a personal victory for them. But they had hidden the photos, Mr. Freeman and Mr. Ryder came back.

"Afternoon gentlemen, where are those car parts you have?" Freeman asked, Mr. Crosswire pointed them out they weren't the ones from Rockwood, just some that were lying around, "I see, and you guys are building what?"

"We are building a car like those American Chopper guys," Buck lied but Freeman believed him.

Freeman joked, "So Moss is that one guy who just yells at everyone, I take because he well doesn't have much hair…"

Mr. Ryder sighed, "You guys do realize that 12 cars were stolen from the auto show right?"

"Yes…"

"Once we get our hands on these four perps, they will be in jail for a long time… a very long time, they had destroyed several of our cruisers, and are part of city property, we managed to fix them up, but the ones that ended up in the river had to be reupholstered."

* * *

Mrs. Clarkson was taking Max for a stroll around the block, it around 3:45 it had started to rain; she was by the Armstrong house. She went there because it was raining quite heavily and she didn't want Max to get sick.

Mrs. Armstrong opened the door, "I thought I told you that Max shouldn't be here, but I will let you stay because it is raining," Mrs. Armstrong held Max in her arms, as she bottle fed him, "Be sure he doesn't go into the den, Sue Ellen is still on the couch."

Max was talking baby talk as Mrs. Armstrong held him; it had tore at her heartstrings, because he had reminded her of when Sue Ellen was a baby.

She set him down and both women were talking, without noticing Max was crawling towards the den.

To Be Continued.


	34. No More Car Thefts Yet

"Where is Max?" Mrs. Clarkson asked worryingly.

_Oh no stop him! Sue Ellen already is suffering enough!_

Mrs. Armstrong saw him crawling towards the den, she had ran as fast as she could and picked Max up before he entered the room, and she carried him back to the table, she had tickled his belly as he laughed.

Mrs. Clarkson sighed, "Fern told me everything… But she really is afraid that Max can't return back to normal, she wants to go to Terra to set things straight, but can't find a way there."

Mrs. Armstrong almost cried; she was now talking baby talk to Max, she turned to Mrs. Clarkson, "Sorry…"

"That's quite alright, I am getting used to the early childhood thing again."

* * *

Mr. Frensky sighed, "Until the heat dies down, lets not steal any cars; I know it sounds cruel to let my daughter suffer, but the cops are watching us." 

"I understand…" Buck replied nervously, but obviously pointed something out, "But won't the cops find it odd if we steal 39 cars instead of 40?"

"Yea, but they will probably just search and search until they end up with no more leads, then we can go and get the rest."

"It could be too late," Moss commented knowing the worst might happen, "We have to work both sides of the law to set things straight."

"We must do it by person, we must do it one at a time, we are going to see who goes first, if it is a job by one person, then a different person will go every day, we are 10 days in; 20 days left, 21 cars left, we must get two cars to make things even."

They had decided to draw straws; Moss and Buck were to go.

They were walking down the street, both wearing disguises, they had walked up to where the cars were that were to be stolen, hotwired them both and drove off. The mistake was it was in broad daylight. The cops were instantly called, and were following them.

The drawback was the cars were too fast, one was a Bentley and the other was a Rolls Royce. They had driven cross the county line to the warehouse without incident, no cars destroyed.

Bailey was waiting for them, and they drove them back to Elwood City, this time a different route so they wouldn't be stopped.

"Ok, we have cars 40 and 41 done; now the odds are in our favor."

"Ok, who will go and get car 42?"

"It will be me," Buck replied, "But I will get car 60."

"Ok, we will rest and not get any more cars, we will do it by opportunity, we will do it and possibly get more if there is another car show or cruise night, if it involves multiple people we are all required to go through and steal what we need because we don't want these guys to win, Francine looked terrible…"

"We will get them back, but don't expect us to get the cars back…"

* * *

Fern and Mr. Kane were talking to Mrs. Clarkson she had Max in her arms he was sleeping. 

"We want to go to Terra…" Fern paused, "We want to go and bring your son back to normal."

"I ain't going back," Mr. Kane admitted, "I have a report to do on the auto thefts at the auto show."

Fern and Mrs. Clarkson had taken a walk; they had boarded a hidden shuttle in the dead woods, and flew off.

They were going at light speed to Terra and had landed outside the Dark Mage village, it was nighttime on the planet, cold, snowing lightly, the mages were celebrating.

"FERN!" one of the older mages said happily as he hugged her, "And you brought a friend and her baby… Are you going to stay with us?"

"We have a problem…" Fern admitted, she had heard some music and celebrating, "What is going on?" She noticed Starla celebrating or atleast trying to.

"It is a lunar eclipse, when it happens; the elder of the village goes on a pilgrimage and comes back in a few days."

Fern looked at the moon, the outline of the moon was seen, "I accidentally age regressed my classmate, you know the baby in his mothers arms? That's him."

The mage looked at Max who was still sleeping, "Ok… you aren't experienced enough to bring him back to his original age, neither am I, when the elder comes back, he can help us."

A mage had ran back, he was holding his stomach some blood was seeping from his stomach, "Our elder is dead…"

To Be Continued.


	35. April Returns

"What? How?" The mage asked in shock.

"The moogles were being attacked by poachers, the elder tried to scare off the poachers, he scared them off but was fatally shot."

This was a problem, Fern of course was upset, "We need someone who can age progress him!"

Starla interjected, "Don't you forget, we are mages, we can revive him. I can't I am not experienced enough yet…"

The one mage had healed the injured mage, they had gone to where the elder had died and fully revived him as the moogles were looking at him nervously.

They had made it back to the village, Fern was waiting, "Fern," The elder said as he was very weak, "I am glad you have come back, where is that cat girl you were hanging out with?"

"April?" Fern asked.

April a Yordilian male and female just smiled at Fern.

"No, Sue Ellen..." Fern lowered her head in sadness, "She had gone into shock…"

"What?" April asked, "What happened?"

Fern had shown her baby Max.

April had gushed a huge smile, "What a cutey!"

"This is what had caused her to go into shock…"

"Poor Sue Ellen…"

The Mage started to talk, "That's too bad… we can't even recover her if we tried."

"Are you going to stay with us for the rest of your days?" the Elder asked.

Fern sighed, "I wish, you all understood me, you took me into your home and raised me like a member of your tribe… I wish Sue Ellen could…" Fern sighed again as the Elder had gone to sleep for the night, Mrs. Clarkson and Fern had did the same thing. It was rare that these mages would accept outsiders they were rather cautious of anyone, but Fern had lived with them for almost two weeks, she was harmless.

The next day they had gotten up in the middle of the village the dark mage wearing royal blue and black robe as were all the other dark mages including Starla, he was standing holding a ceremonial wand made of a precious metal and an expensive looking gem, "I will heal him, but please read some spell books if you want to learn more advanced stuff."

Mrs. Clarkson set her son down and she walked away so the mage could get started. He had waived his hand, as the gem had glowed, within moments light had engulfed Max, and soon he was back to his original age.

Fern chuckled at him as he was only wearing a diaper, "Max, you better get some clothes before we go home…"

Max looked down, "Wah! Why am I wearing a diaper?"

"I accidentally age regressed you, I am so sorry for what happened."

Within moments the mage had waived his hand, and Max was wearing his clothes, the diaper disappeared and he was just wearing underwear; under his pants.

April had appeared; she smiled at Max while the tiger boy had a look of love in his eyes, Fern interrupted the moment, "Dream on lover boy! Prunella would kill you and I highly doubt the authors associated would want to have a story made where _you_ and April had a relationship."

Max sighed, he was just a confused boy in love, he really liked Prunella, but after meeting April, to him she seemed really nice.

"I want to go and see Sue Ellen again…" April responded.

Max smiled at her as Mrs. Clarkson hugged him tightly, "I am so happy to have my son back!"

The mage walked towards Fern and her friends, "We have a few more hours of the celebration left; do you want to join us as honorary guests?"

Fern smiled at them, they were good to her, they treated her like one of their own, "I would love to."

After some celebration, and a feast they had to leave, the dark mage handed her a leather-bound spell book, "This book is a gift from us, depending on what wand you have, it varies on how long it will take to learn. We also have much to learn about the outsiders, please when you return tell us more about Sherlock Holmes."

Fern thought.

_Prunella should take the wand and book, I don't deserve this._

"Thanks."

Back in the village of the moogles, they seemed to be on edge… Sue Ellen lived with them, they accepted them in their colony, they must have knew that she would be at death's door soon.

Fern, Max, April and Max's mother had went back to Earth, first stop Sue Ellen's

Sue Ellen was lying on the couch, for almost a week, she had closed her eyes… she was almost dead… well more like at deaths door going towards the afterlife as she progressed to the period. Her heart beat was slowing down as every second had passed estimated at about 35 beats a minutes but going lower. The spirit already prepared Sue Ellen's physical and spiritual body for the afterlife. Mrs. Armstrong considered pulling the plug on her daughter, "I am sorry…" and she did.

"What are you doing?" April asked in shock.

Mrs. Armstrong was a bit upset, "It is for the best, she wanted it this way; I want to end her suffering…"

She watched as Sue Ellen's health was slowing degrading, she left the room

_Good bye…I am dead now… When I get to the afterlife and live on the planet Subcon, I hopefully won't suffer as much… I can visit those who came through Elwood City and passed on…_

Mrs. Armstrong sat at the kitchen table nearly crying, she was writing Sue Ellen's obituary…

_It is in great sadness to announce that Sue Ellen has passed away due to complications when she had went into shock, many could say that she had died of a broken heart…_

Mrs. Armstrong was still writing when she saw that Max back to normal, she led him to see Sue Ellen, Mrs. Armstrong thought she was dead… her breathing was shallow her heartbeat was around 25 beats a minute now, but her mother didn't pay attention to it, she was too upset as she thought Sue Ellen had died, "You are too late… she passed away."

Max was shocked, "She died?" he looked down, Sue Ellen had looked like an angel, he fell to his knees and was crying, "Cousin…" he rubbed her check; it was warm to the touch.

April had a tear stream down her cheek as she hugged Max who strangely enough was crying more than her.

On the proverbial other side; an aardvark man in white of average height had looked at Sue Ellen_, "It isn't your time to cross over yet you have about 80 or 90 more years left don't give up so easily…"_

Sue Ellen opened her eyes slowly as she was now breathing normally and her heartbeat picked up; she looked in the Tiger Boy's blue eyes all she said was, "Max…?"

"She must have slipped off to sleep; fooled me pretty good," Mrs. Armstrong replied as she called the doctor and he rushed over to unhook everything.

Max replied, "Yea, it's me…"

She turned to April, "April…"

"I am here; everything is going to be fine…"

Sue Ellen had taken a look at Fern, "I am still upset with you for what happened."

"…I know…"

Fern had left, she accepted that Sue Ellen and her weren't best friends anymore, she was glad Sue Ellen was ok, but they just weren't seeing eye to eye.

Fern looked through the book, it was obvious that there may be some organ damage, she used the wand, the gem glowed a healthy green color and healed Sue Ellen quickly; Fern left.

Sue Ellen and Max were talking.

"I thought you were dead…" Max commented sadly.

"No I was asleep… I think… I fell asleep before you both got here, but I am glad to see you are well, I think I may have experienced some out of body experiences and thought that I died before you came…"

Max looked at her, she was much thinner, "You were probably dreaming…"

Sue Ellen thought.

_I could have sworn that I died… My life flashed before my eyes…_

All she said was, "Probably…"

He just hugged her tightly…

"I am glad that you have survived, Max is a good kid, a bit quirky but…" April turned to Max, "Be sure she knows that her parents are proud of her."

Sue Ellen sighed.

"I am telling you this because where I am from a certain cat girls parents are arrested by some Thrag, I bet she is going to miss her parents dearly despite what they did, I know I would…" April concluded.

"Wait."

"I can't stay, the Thrag'll search for me remember? They fear the Dark Mages, because they aren't used to forbidden power such as magic, a technologically advanced police force, yet afraid of something very primitive such as magic…" April responded as she left on the ship en route to Terra to the Dark Mage Village never to be seen again.

* * *

Mr. Frensky was reading the papers to see of any indication of cruise night, or any car shows, they needed this major break, they wanted to get Francine back as soon as they could, they couldn't find any leads, this was a problem, all just news stories from Mr. Kane.

Mr. Frensky set the paper down; he needed to be sure that if they had to go to Crown City for any reason. That they wouldn't get involved with street gangs, state troopers, highway patrol or the Elwood City police force. If any of those would get involved it would simply translate to being Game Over because if the cars were to get dents or broken windows, then they wouldn't accept them.

Mr. Frensky sighed, he knew cars were left, his neighbors had cars that were on the list, and 19 cars were left

He had decided to get car 42.

To Be Continued.


	36. Some More Autotheft

Mr. Frensky had jimmied the lock and drove off, without anyone noticing, everyone was at Crosswire motors, and he had dropped off the car at the same place and went back to his car dealership. This had happened without incident, it was too easy. He approached Moss, "Harry, it is your turn next."

"Yea, I will get number 43 tomorrow."

"Preferably, around where I live, there are 15 cars left in my neighborhood."

"And we can't steal more than one?"

"With police on high alert I wouldn't."

They sighed as they couldn't steal anymore for now.

* * *

Arthur had ran to Sue Ellen's he was overjoyed to see her, he had hugged her tightly, "I am so happy to see you up and well!"

Sue Ellen was thinner now than before, she had intervenes hooked up to her, but she was still healthy compared to Francine who looked like she had an eating disorder.

They had both walked to his house, "I… think I am having a crush on you…"

As they continued to walk there, they had seen Fern and Max talk to Prunella and they had stopped.

Fern was handing the wand and the strange leather bound book to Prunella, "Be careful with it don't do the same mistakes that I did..."

Max had embraced the rat girl who was still taller than him, "I love you…"

She stared into his blue eyes, "I love you too…"

They had both walked down the street… but Fern was alone… it was depressing seeing her standing alone as Sue Ellen and Arthur held hands.

She started to cry, Sue Ellen couldn't stand seeing her upset, "Fern?"

Fern turned around, "W-what?"

"I am sorry for what happened, I am sorry for all the bad things that had happen, and what was said, I was shocked that Max wouldn't come back to normal, I know he is my cousin, and I know he needs to understand what life is like here."

Fern hugged her as the she was still in tears, "…thanks."

"But I think we need to keep away from each other for a while, I am thankful you got him back to normal, but we should probably hang out with other people."

Fern sighed, "Fair enough, just tell me when you want to hang out again."

"I will…"

Arthur and Sue Ellen continued walking to his house, while George saw how upset Fern was.

"George?" Fern asked.

"Do you want to do something?" George asked nervously.

Fern had a smile on her face, "Sure…"

George liked Fern a lot, he walked to the Sugar Bowl with her and had saw Max and Prunella, they had joined them.

Max looked at Fern, "How is everything going?"

"Terrible…" Fern said sadly, "Sue Ellen doesn't want to be friends with me anymore."

Max reassured her, "She is just upset; I'll talk to her."

He had left the sugar bowl, and had gone to Arthur's house; he had last seen her going in that direction; when he seen then Arthur and Sue Ellen were playing DDR through the front Window."

He had knocked on the door, and Arthur had answered, "Hi Max."

"Hi, can I talk to Sue Ellen?"

Sue Ellen came to the door, "What's up?"

"Can you please resolve your problems with Fern?"

Sue Ellen was annoyed, "Max, Fern turned you into a baby, and what I remember was I went to shock after I had seen you as a one year old, tell her unless she saves my life; we still won't be doing stuff together."

"But-"

D.W. caught sight of them, "You!"

Max sighed and he left, he didn't want to deal with D.W.

To Be Continued.


	37. Car 60 Part 1

Authors note: I kind of am rushing to the ending, there is one more chapter after this

* * *

Mr. Frensky, and company decided to get cars 43, 44 and possibly 45, there was a chance for cars 46 and beyond but they were cautious of the operation.

Mr. Frensky unlocked the car with a simple coat hanger and Reno hotwired it; and they were off driving down the road as fast as they could safely without crashing.

Mr. Crosswire and Moss were taking a Hummer, it was on the list, it was fairly common to see one but were major gas guzzlers they hoped that they wouldn't run out of gas because it would mean precious time, they had drove off; Buck was to follow, not to close to attract police but just to pick them up.

They knew the risks associated now, 16 cars left, and there was probably a police presence.

Mr. Crosswire had asked him, "Oliver should we go back to my neighborhood for car 45?"

He was thinking, "Police were probably called, we could go to cruise night and do sleep gas on the people there and take the cars."

They had driven back to a retro diner, it was busy, but soon it would be sleepy, Buck threw some canisters of sleeping gas into the crowd and everyone was asleep. They had put on their gas masks, and had taken cars 45-48, Buck still driving, far away from them because of the risk of getting caught.

They had passed the county line and dropped off the cars, it was odd there was no police around, but it was probably explained that they were in Mr. Crosswires neighborhood.

This had thrown off the police severely because they were on high alert; when Mr. Crosswire got home that evening, nearly every member of the police force was in the neighborhood looking for clues.

The next day at school hostilities between Fern and Sue Ellen picked up, Max was caught in the middle of it; as was Arthur, and the aardvark boy was telling Sue Ellen just to ignore her, even though Fern couldn't really move on.

Max was at times physically separating the two girls now because of this.

It was stressful, Max almost being scratched and kicked by the two girls, Arthur telling Sue Ellen to just ignore Fern.

As the days had passed, Max was getting annoyed as Sue Ellen were going at it again, "THAT'S IT!" he yelled, "I am tired of you both fighting all the time, I am tired of you both making me pick sides!"

And he ran off sitting under a tree crying.

Both girls were shocked, they both walked towards Max.

"We are sorry for the way we were acting."

Max wiped away his tears, "Are you going to apologize?"

Fern sighed, "Max, sometimes you need to accept the cold harsh truth…"

"Yea, if Fern saves my life I will consider it, but can you both leave us alone?" Sue Ellen asked curiously.

"Why aren't you fighting?" Max asked sadly.

"We both saw how upset you got and we are sorry for how we both had been treating you," Fern explained and they both walked their separate ways.

"Girls are so weird…" Max stated.

Buster looked on, "You're telling me Muffy acts as if…"

"She was on the rag all the time?" Binky asked.

"Shut up Binky, same with you Buster! And not this rag thing again!" Muffy yelled.

Mrs. Armstrong sighed, "You still have detentions Ms. Crosswire..."

Muffy lowered her head as Arthur and Sue Ellen looked on, Arthur had cleared his throat, and looked at the floor, "Muffy, I think it may be time for us to part ways…"

Muffy sighed and went to detention without saying a word.

* * *

Later that afternoon and several cars later bring us to Car 59 was at the top level of a four level garage, it was a very fast Italian sports car parked at the top level that was needed to be stolen.

Buck and Reno took the liberty to steal it as Mr. Freeman followed them. Buck drove full speed and jumped the ramp off the building onto the street level as noted when they had stolen two cars earlier and did the same thing.

Mr. Freeman and Mr. Ryder were full of piss and vinegar, they both decided to jump at full speed. When they landed at the street level the bodies of the two squad cars fell off leaving the frame.

Freeman and Ryder were cursing like sailors as Buck and Reno got away to deliver the speed demon of a car.

It was car 60 now time was 3:30 PM; Buck dropped off 59 and wanted to start 60 he was the driver for this mission, Muffy was wanting to ride shotgun for car 60, the Dodge viper model year 2003 was on the other side of town, they both had to travel the streets of Elwood City to get to the county line, and as Cars 49-57 involved higher law enforcement, this was ultimately risky.

The car was much faster than most police cars.

He had run up to the Viper when he had seen it; it was beautiful, it was a red color and it looked like it was recently cleaned and waxed.

Mr. Crosswire and everyone else was disabling security, on it, while Buck had hotwired it. Muffy jumped into the front seat and they had driven off.

The roar of the engine revving up was nearly deafening; but there was a problem now.

The problem was that the police were now following them.

"PULL OVER!" Freeman yelled as he was in a new cop car.

Buck turned to Muffy, "Hold on, this car can go very fast!"

Muffy held on and within moments the Viper sped down the street around the corner and Freeman had lost them.

"All units, please be advised, there is a stolen 2003 Dodge Viper heading towards the Teal County Line, please put out an APB to highway patrol and state troopers as the driver and anyone involved will be arrested."

He continued driving trying to catch up.

While Sue Ellen was walking across the street, it was safe, but Buck sped towards the crosswalk. Fern shrieked when she had seen the speeding viper!

TBC


	38. Car 60 Part 2

Fern shrieked, she had one chance at doing this if she missed or didn't tackle hard enough both girls would be dead, she had rushed across the street and did a running tackle as they both landed on the curb.

"I… saved… your… life…" Fern announced but they were both winded as Fern's tackle crushed the wind out of Sue Ellen and the landing crushed the wind out of Fern.

She was coughing, "Thanks you are a great friend…"

They were both breathing heavily and soon passed out right after the Viper sped past them. It was like they had some sort of divine protection. They were out cold for a few minutes when Max had arrived with tears in his eyes, "They are dead?"

Both girls were coughing heavilly to try and get some air into their lungs.

"We are ok…" Sue Ellen replied as she was a bit dazed.

Sue Ellen and Fern had gotten up and went to the Sugar Bowl.

Max just looked at them walk away, "Wait for me!"

Buck was being now chased by the highway patrol and some state troopers, has he had driven the 450 horsepower Dodge Viper through the streets of Elwood City, this particular car was on one side of town, but to get to the highway leading to Rockwood, it was on the other side of town, he was surpassing speeds of 120 MPH on city streets, the cops were trying to catch up to him, as more cops continued the chase, state and highway patrol was starting to get more involved now as roadblocks were set up.

Buck didn't care, he wasn't scared, this was a thrill for him; Muffy was covering her eyes, she was afraid that Buck was going to crash, stealing a hot car, having the whole Elwood City police force on him, he was expecting the worse as he was nearing one of those transport trucks that usually had cars loaded onto it, it was empty, he decided to drive fully speed and he had jumped it, 30 feet in the air and he landed about 60 feet away from a roadblock as the car flew over nearly knocking some officers off their feet.

This was car number 60; he had less than two hours to get to Rockwood, as they wanted the final car at 5 PM. Mr. Crosswire was following a different route to Rockwood, he knew if anyone could handle a car like that it would be Buck.

Buck needed to be careful not to damage the merchandise because if he did, they wouldn't accept the car, and the mission would end in complete and utter failure. He had partially hoped that the FBI wasn't going to get involved because he knew that those cars were fast, and could possibly match the speed of the Dodge Viper.

Freeman and Ryder were in separate police cars putting the petal to the metal, "I want this SOB arrested!" he yelled in a walky-talky.

Ryder responded, "We will catch him, and we will beat him to the fullest extent of the law."

"Yea, he finds stealing hot cars an art, and then he will learn the fine art of police brutality," Ryder yelled in the walkie-talkie

Buck continued driving, he was nearing a roadblock, two police cars were following him; one to the left of him and the other to the right, he had slammed on the breaks and the two police cars drove passed and smashed into the roadblock, opening up a new path.

He drove through the now destroyed roadblock and turned down 1st street, now was the main problem… cars, he had to weave through mid-afternoon traffic to get to the street he needed to go if he wanted to get to Rockwood; to make things worse, the highway patrol was on him now, "Weekend cops…"

The cars were slightly faster, but still couldn't keep up. This car was built for speed and performance; he hoped there was enough gas in it because it was nearing a ¼ tank.

Buck couldn't find another ramp or anything, he had turned down an alley to cut to a different street, it had avoided one road block as he was nearing the street he needed.

He had managed to make it onto Main Street, two lanes of traffic as he was nearing the edge of town towards the lonely country highway, he managed to get to an intersection blocked by police cars, but he took the Viper off-road and went around it. Buck was nearing the county line.

"Elwood City Police Department, he is out of your jurisdiction he crossed the county line, please stop pursuing the perpetrator; repeat E.C.P.D. do not pursue."

Freeman was pissed, 60 cars stolen in less than 21 days, didn't look good, he and the other officers had parked their cars close to the county line as the highway patrol and state troopers continued the chase. On the lonely stretch of highway. Of course he nor the other members of his police force continued.

"PURSUE, PURSUE, PURSUE!" Freeman yelled.

Some Thrag weren't watching where they were going and Freeman had stopped at they were jaywalking, "YOU GUYS ARE UNDER ARREST!" he had his pistol drawn as he got out but caused a chain reaction accident where police cars were crashing, (BLEEP!) He jumped into a car that was still in drivable condition.

"She isn't here, but I wonder what his problem was? We are calling off the search for the Dark Mage, and those three other kids" A Thrag announced as they boarded a nearby ship for a planet light-years away

Buck was driving as fast as he could, into the seedy looking village in his point of view that looked inbred. He had turned as fast as he can and done a perfect 360 to throw off the officers, and turned down another street, this time a one way street.

They were weaving through traffic as police car after police car suffered head on collisions.

Buck was in the clear except what was separating him now was two police cars, as fast as the Viper, a bridge that was full of cars due to an accident and a makeshift ramp. Buck put the petal to the metal and he had aimed for the ramp, he jumped over every car as Muffy screamed in horror, and landed a few feet past the ambulances, he was a 1/3 mile there; he knew he was going to make it, the police cars couldn't get past the traffic jam on the bridge.

He made it to the warehouse, Mr. Crosswire was waiting outside, and Buck dropped off the car, with a briefcase of $1 Million dollars, he stepped out of the car, took a breather, after a 45 minute chase through Elwood City, he was thankful it was over.

Davenport took a puff of his cigar; he snatched the briefcase from his hands, "Car number 60."

He untied Francine, and had shot Buck in the chest, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Muffy screamed in horror.

Buck collapsed, Francine and Muffy dragged him over to the Crosswire Limousine car, and he helped Buck in, Buck wasn't dead, just in critical condition.

"We need to get to a hospital, he doesn't have much time!" Muffy screamed.

They had driven to a nearby hospital; the police had given up the chase and couldn't find them.

They managed to make it back to Elwood City, Buck was in a more weakened state now, as he was admitted, a nurse turned to them, "He is going to be fine."

As the days had passed, Buck's condition was upgraded from critical to stable condition, Muffy walked in, "I am sorry for what happened."

"This was probably one of the most invigorating adventures I had; we didn't want some hick killing your friend."

"What happened to Davenport?" Mr. Crosswire asked.

"He got away, the Benneditto's got away as well," Reno answered, "Mrs. Armstrong is going to kill me!"

"Buy her a new Ferrari," Mr. Crosswire stated as he put him up to the idea of it.

Later that day Buck was discharged from the hospital, Mr. Crosswire had driven to a Ferrari dealership in Crown City, to buy one thing for Mrs. Armstrong, A red Ferrari 575M Maranello. It was one hot car; Reno had driven it back to the driveway, of the Armstrong residence.

When she heard a car pull into the driveway she was shocked, "Reno, who's car is that?"

"Yours."

Mrs. Armstrong was shocked, "Mine?"

"I saw how upset you were when those car thieves stole your car, so I decided to get a new one for you."

Mrs. Armstrong hugged Reno tightly, "Thank you!"

* * *

Mr. Freeman was back at the police station, still not happy, the mayor an aardvark man wearing a suit walked in, "Mr. Freeman, the city council and I have decided to fire you, so clear your desk, Mr. Ryder will be the new police chief but he is under suspension because of the certain unpleasantness."

"But sir-"

"I in my many years of experience have never seen so many smashed up police cars in my life, I know I need to recruit a lot of new officers because of what happened, Ryder is close to being fired as well, you both headed up the case and you both can't catch a car?"

"I know…" Ryder stated, "You know I am almost fired, but I will…" he paused and turned to Freeman, "How about you reinstate him, I become police chief and he becomes my deputy?"

"That sounds more fitting, but be sure something like this never happens again, or both your asses will be fired."

* * *

Max, Fern, the Brain, and Sue Ellen were over at Arthur's house; both the boys were watching Fern and Sue Ellen play… or dance in DDR.

"Back to normal…" Max commented.

Buck was at the Sugar Bowl with Muffy, "Harry got the pictures of everything developed, they both looked at the jump across the bridge with the Dodge Viper, the car was several feet above the other cars; "Harry took this when we were both in mid-air, it was awesome doing a jump that we could have probably got killed."

Muffy sighed, "It was scary…"

"Are you going to miss me because I am leaving?"

"…Yes."

"You can visit me any time…"

Muffy hugged him, "…I will."

He had walked out of the Sugar Bowl and walked towards the pickup truck, when the doctor had seen him, "You stated you were moving to Tennesee? Don't I need to check up on you, before you plan any major moves!"

Buck sighed, it was his time to go.

* * *

The next day at school, it was as normal as normal could be.

Fern was sitting there chatting with Sue Ellen as her mother smiled at both girls, Max gave Mrs. Armstrong a fresh Granny Smith Apple, "It may be cheaper if you buy me an apple tree, in the summer time we can planet one, just you and me."

Max had blushed.

Arthur and Muffy were talking about well life… Buster he talked about many odd things with Binky as he went along with him. Despite Arthur's parents recently getting divorced.

The Brain and George just sat together talking about the girls.

It was finally a normal day indeed… provided that nothing abnormal happened.

The End.


End file.
